On Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron named Education Minister Gabriel Attal, 34, as his next Prime Minister. Gabriel Attal, 34, is France’s youngest post-war Prime Minister, breaking the record formerly held by communist Laurent Fabius, 37, when he was appointed Prime Minister by Francois Mitterrand in 1984.
Attal is the first openly gay Prime Minister of France. When he was named a junior minister during Macron’s first term, an old-school acquaintance exposed him. At the time, Attal was dating Macron’s former political adviser Stephane Sejourne.
At the age of 17, Attal joined the Socialist Party. After being chosen as government spokesman during the pandemic, he became a household name in French politics.
He would eventually be appointed as a junior minister in the finance ministry and then education minister in 2023, establishing himself as one of Macron’s most astute cabinet members and a skilled communicator.
Despite being from the left, Attal’s first move as education minister last year was to outlaw the Muslim abaya clothing in state schools, gaining him support from many conservative voters.
Attal recently appeared on a popular TV show to recount the story of how a former classmate tormented him in middle school and embarrassed him on a blog built to grade classmates’ physiques during the early days of the Internet revolution.