Gabriel Attal is Breaking Barriers as France's Youngest Prime Minister

Recently, new news from France has occupied the world agenda. After the Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, resigned from her post, President Emmanuel Macron appointed 34-year-old Minister of Education Gabriel Attal as the new prime minister. Elisabeth Borne resigned after the political crisis that broke out after adopting the controversial immigration law in the country. What is this controversial immigration law?

To put it briefly, the immigration law, approved by the parliament on December 19, 2023, ties the rental support and family benefits given to foreigners living in the country to certain working conditions. According to the law, working foreigners will be able to benefit from rental support 30 months after arriving in France, and non-working foreigners will be able to benefit from rental support after five years.

Under the law, children of foreign parents born in France will need to claim French citizenship at the age of 16-18 and must not have previously committed a crime. The law, which complicates the conditions for family reunification, requires a deposit from foreign students who come to France for education. This deposit is intended to cover the return expenses when a decision is made to expel the foreign student from French territory.

Gabriel Attal became the youngest prime minister in the modern history of France and also the first to openly declare that he was gay. Analysts think President Macron's appointment of Attal to this position will not lead to a major political change. However, with this move, Macron wishes to increase his chances by breathing new life into the political arena before the European Parliament elections to be held in June. Political commentators describe Gabriel Attal as an "understanding minister" who can speak easily in parliament and the mainstream media.

Attal was born on March 16, 1989, in Clamart, north of France. Growing up in a family of four children with three sisters, Attal's father, Yves Attal, was a film producer. His father was of Alsatian Jewish ancestry on the maternal side and Tunisian Jewish ancestry on the paternal side. Attal's mother, Marie de Couriss, was an employee of a film production company and was of French and Greek-Russian descent. Gabriel Attal was raised in the Orthodox Christian faith of his mother.

Attal, who graduated from Sciences Po Paris, one of the most prestigious schools in France, took his first steps into political life in 2006 as a member of the Socialist Party. He was among the first names to support Macron before he assumed the presidency. Prime Minister Attal held many positions during Macron's presidency, such as deputy, government spokesperson, and minister of education.

He served as the Minister of Public Action and Accounts in the Élisabeth Borne Government, established in 2022. Later, he was appointed as the Minister of National Education and Youth in 2023.

He was appointed as prime minister on January 9, 2024, and thus became the youngest prime minister in French history at the age of 34. The former holder of this record was Laurent Fabius. He was the prime minister in 1984, at the age of 37, under the leadership of Francois Mitterrand.