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PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron has put rising star Gabriel Attal at the center of a high-risk gamble aimed at stopping the rise of the far right ahead of European elections.
In a surprise move, Macron on Tuesday named his former education minister and one of France's most popular politicians as the country's youngest-ever prime minister, revitalizing his flagging presidency – at the risk of hastening the end of his own rule.
Macron is under pressure to advance his presidency as the far-right National Rally party surged past the center in polls ahead of June's EU election and two brutal fights over immigration and pensions last year.
In contrast to the uncompromising campaign of 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, the top candidate of the Rassemblement National, Macron's presidency finds it difficult to exude energy and vitality after seven years at the helm of France and talk of a lame duck presidency is widespread in political circles .
Despite his short political career, Attal, 34, has earned a reputation as a stubborn attack dog or a “word sniper” against the far right, having already crossed swords with Bardella in previous election debates and speaking fluently as a government spokesman during the Covid pandemic and as Minister of Education.
“It's a major media coup,” said a conservative Les Républicains heavyweight who was granted anonymity to speak on a sensitive topic. Macron “does it because [Attal] will lead the European election campaign… he was the only one who could hold his own against Bardella,” he said.
Several political insiders told POLITICO that the European election battle was one of the main reasons Macron chose Attal.
“Gabriel Attal and Jordan Bardella obviously come from the same generation. “Attal has political acumen, knows how to deliver a punchline with substance, so he is someone who can take on the National Assembly,” said a Macron adviser. But it was thanks to “his actions” that he was able to win the National Rally, he added.
Nominating a combative politician with his own ambitions also poses significant risk for the president, who has historically preferred more reserved, technocratic figures as his deputies. An Attal premiership could speed up talks about what comes after Macron, since the French president cannot run for a third term.
Attal's meteoric rise, not unlike Macron himself, is also causing turmoil among Macron's heavyweight allies, who look askance at the young high-flyer taking the reins of government. Macron is “forced to work hard” to push through the nomination even though it should be “a slam dunk,” a presidential ally said on Monday.
Macron's mini-me about the election campaign
The upcoming European elections will be the last time in four years that Macron will face his nemesis Marine Le Pen before the end of his term. A far-right victory would reverberate for years and poison the president's legacy.
However, the clash comes at the worst possible time for the president. Not only is the National Rally almost ten points ahead of his centrist alliance in polls, but Macron's presidency has also reached rock bottom.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL
For more polling data from across Europe, see POLITICO Poll of Polls.
The president's troops have emerged battered after his hardline immigration bill was passed with support from the far right, an episode that nearly split his centrist alliance. The immigration fight followed heated debates over French pension reform last spring, which sparked weeks of nationwide protests.
According to POLITICO's Poll of Polls, Macron is weakening in the polls with only 30 percent approval.
His outgoing prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, was criticized as a technocrat who lacked charisma and political agility and was exhausted by successive battles to pass laws after Macron's defeat in last year's general election. She also lost a lot of political capital when she failed to foresee or prevent a surprise defeat in parliament when the National Assembly rejected the immigration bill without a vote in December.
Attal, on the other hand, is a fresh hand at the helm.
“This is great news, we will have a head of government who is a political actor and is able to embody Macron's pro-European vision,” said Alexandre Holroyd, a lawmaker from Macron's Renaissance Party.
“To stop the far right, which is on the rise not only in France but across Europe, we have to show that political action is efficient,” and Attal is good at speaking to the public, he added.
Strategically, Attal's nomination could also help secure support from center-left voters, as left-wing MEP Raphaël Glucksmann emerges as a rival candidate ahead of the European elections. Attal, a former Socialist Party member and the first openly gay prime minister, represents progressive ideas and has made cyberbullying and homophobia prominent causes.
What has really changed?
Macron himself had tasked Attal with “regenerating” his government, with “boldness” and “in the spirit of 2017,” his first election year, he wrote on X.
But while Attal is a fresh face, Macron's room for maneuver on the domestic front is shrinking and it is unlikely that the new premiership will run smoothly. The centrists still lack a majority in parliament, so passing legislation will remain a painful and humiliating process as the government seeks ad hoc alliances with opposition MPs.
Macron is also struggling to find inspiration for his second term and has piled up vague initiatives such as last year's “100 days,” the “Saint Denis meetings” with opposition leaders and this month's “meeting with the nation.”
But the nomination partially solves a problem that has been troubling Macron's camp for weeks: Who will run as Macron's top candidate in the European elections? The far right has been campaigning for weeks and Macron, a notorious ditherer, has still not chosen a leading candidate for France's Renew campaign.
With many heavyweights in the government hesitant to wage a difficult election campaign, the names floated in Paris – Europe Minister Laurence Boone or Renew leader Stéphane Séjourné – did not appear to have enough influence to stand up to the far right.
Gabriel Attal carries more than just the European campaign on his shoulders | Pool photo by Ludovic Marin via AFP/Getty Images
With this week's reshuffle, Renew's leading candidate could play more of a supporting role in France.
But Attal carries more than just the European election campaign on his shoulders. As one of the stars of the “Macron Generation,” young politicians who bridged the divide between left and right and came to power with the French president, Attal will save or hasten the end of Macronism and its centrist, pro-European political offering.
It was the “last bullet before the end of his term in office,” said the same conservative heavyweight quoted above.
Pauline de Saint Remy contributed reporting