The 34-year-old education minister has been one of Emmanuel Macron's most loyal supporters.
ADVERTISEMENTFrench President Emmanuel Macron has named the 34-year-old Gabriel Attal as France's new prime minister on Tuesday.
Attal, who has replaced Elisabeth Borne, becomes France's youngest and first openly gay PM.
The move comes as Macron seeks a fresh start for the rest of his term amid growing political pressure from the far right.
Attal rose to prominence as the government spokesman and education minister.
His predecessor Borne resigned Monday following recent political turmoil over a controversial new immigration law, which some claimed showed Macron was giving in to the far-right.
Borne, who was appointed in May 2022 as the second woman to cover that role, made clear in her resignation letter that she did not wish to leave her position but Macron had decided to replace her.
Macron, a 46-year-old centrist whose term ends in 2027, is to name a government in the coming days.
Confirming the nomination of Attal on X, formerly Twitter, the French president wrote: "Dear @GabrielAttal, I know I can count on your energy and your commitment to implement the rearmament and regeneration project that I announced."
He added: "In fidelity to the spirit of 2017: surpassing and audacity. In the service of the Nation and the French."
Patrick Vignal of Macron's Renaissance party said that he welcomed the nomination of "the youngest Prime Minister of the 5th Republic!", adding that the French president is known to "unearth talent."
In response to recent criticism from the opposition, Vignal wrote on X that "the bench and the back bench" of Macron's team "are very well stocked, because we had other very serious and competent candidates."
Macron's second term lasts until 2027, and he is constitutionally barred from a third consecutive term. Political observers also suggested that Macron, a staunch supporter of European integration, wants his new government to get ready for June’s European Union elections, where far-right, anti-EU populists are expected to increase their influence.
Who is Gabriel Attal?
Attal was born on 16 March 1989 in Clamart, a 40-minute drive away from the centre of Paris. According to information provided by the French government, he studied at Sciences Po in the French capital between 2007 and 2013 and has since then served in a variety of roles, including government spokesperson and public accounts minister.
Once a member of the Socialist Party, Attal joined Macron's Renaissance party in 2016. He was a government spokesperson from 2020 to 2022, a job that made him well-known to the French public.
Attal was then named budget minister before being appointed in July as education minister, one of the most prestigious positions in the French government.
He quickly announced a ban on long robes in classrooms which took effect with the new school year in September, saying the garments worn mainly by Muslims were testing secularism in the schools.
He also launched a plan to experiment with uniforms in some public schools, as part of efforts to move the focus away from clothes and reduce school bullying.
Prime ministers play an important role in France under the country's constitution and are the second-highest figure after that of the president. They're directly accountable to Parliament and control the French government day to day.