2024-01-10 12:29:34
A 34-year-old man, Gabriel Attal, joins Matignon and thus becomes the youngest prime minister of France. He replaces Rue de Varenne, a woman who held the reins of government for twenty months, in a particularly trying context of relative majority. Elisabeth Borne leaves with her head held high, with the feeling of duty accomplished. She washed away the affront made to the only woman who had preceded her in this function, Edith Cresson, victim of ambient machismo and dismissed in less than a year (May 1991-April 1992). Seen from this angle, the change of Prime Minister, announced Tuesday January 9, is part of the gesture of the beginnings of Macronism: the bonus goes to audacity and youth, but the forms are set.
Also read the portrait: Article reserved for our subscribers Gabriel Attal in Matignon, the spectacular promotion of a loyal follower of the Head of State
This highly claimed return to the sources nevertheless appears to be an imposed exercise. If Emmanuel Macron, renowned for his verticality and his desire not to dilute power, decided to appoint someone younger than him, as ambitious but much more popular, to the post of head of government, it is because he there is danger. Less than two years have passed since his re-election and Macronism is in great difficulty, threatened by the dynamics of the National Rally and the desire for revenge of the parties it supplanted. If Renaissance suffers a setback in the European elections in June and opponents will consider that the page has been turned.
A rapid change in dimension
To ward off this risk, the president took two. Expose in full light a succession that it would have been in his interest to see mature longer. Accept that a de facto competition is taking place in front of the French between the model and its copy, between this one and the other contenders: same ambition, same audacity, same capacity to complete the stages.
Also read the column by Solenn de Royer: Article reserved for our subscribers “With Gabriel Attal at Matignon, Emmanuel Macron concedes that he needs his popularity to breathe new life into his mandate”
Coming from the ranks of the Socialist Party, the new prime minister in no way embodies a revenge of the left wing of the majority on the right wing, after the disturbance caused by the conditions of adoption of the bill relating to immigration. The elected official from Hauts-de-Seine was chosen because the popularity that he managed to build in less than six months at the Ministry of National Education is fully in line with the roadmap drawn up by the president of the Republic: ban on the abaya, promise to raise the level of students and restore the authority of teachers, overhaul of programs… The demand was there. Gabriel Attal responded by quickly and regularly issuing strong announcements. He thus proved that a well-sold macronism was not doomed to chronic unpopularity. For the president, it is a lesson worth learning.
Also read the story: Article reserved for our subscribers Gabriel Attal’s lightning transition to national education, long-term ministry
A lot will be asked of the new Prime Minister in the coming months: to get the country out of the gloom, to meet the French, to take his part in the European election campaign, to animate the majority, to control the jealousy of the oldest, to tame a National Assembly which will have made life difficult for Elisabeth Borne. Having been government spokesperson for almost two years, Gabriel Attal has certainly acclimatized to the games but, for him, the change in dimension is so rapid that the question cannot be avoided: will he have the build? It will also be difficult for him to be forgiven for abandoning national education as quickly as he seized it, without having taken the time to make his promises a reality. If the handover is not perfectly controlled, the change that has just occurred risks appearing as a worrying whirlwind.
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