A small "revolution", just like the title of the book he published in 2016 before setting out to seize power. By appointing Gabriel Attal as prime minister – who, at 34, has become the youngest PM in the history of the French Fifth Republic – President Emmanuel Macron has sprung a surprise. Whereas his last reshuffles were near-unanimously judged as damp squibs, with limited technical and political effects, the onset of this one is already a breakthrough, and one that says a lot about Macron.
Perhaps for the first time since 2017, this president, who has been so keen to show that he is self-sufficient, has implied that he needs to be supported. Or even – one might dare say – helped. In short, that he needs someone at his side, someone endowed with special talents (energy, ambition, and political acumen), even a devoted junior with limited room to maneuver, to relaunch a bogged-down five-year term.
Up until now, Macron had always appointed prime ministers who had the same profile: Senior civil servants with a fine knowledge of the French state's inner workings, but who were totally unknown by the public and had no political clout whatsoever. They were mere assistants, who were certainly technically well-equipped, but had no existence of their own and were therefore of no real interest. Hence the endless time he would take in appointing them, or even the boredom that seemed to pervade him at such times. Indeed, when Edouard Philippe had gained in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, he immediately parted company with him, as he couldn't bear the fact that this "indebted man" was beginning to overshadow him. A crime against the monarch!
Jupiter down on one knee
Nothing of the sort this time. With Attal, the president has chosen to promote a highly political figure who doubles as also a formidable communicator. A man who is perfectly well-known to the French people, to the point of being their favorite minister. By promoting the only face – among Macron's historic supporters – to have truly emerged politically over the last six years, Macron has implicitly conceded that he needs this (admittedly relative) stature, youth and popularity, to breathe new life into his mandate, which was cruelly lacking in these virtues.
Some will see this as an admission of weakness. That of a president encircled by political extremes, contested within his own bloc (which was divided over the immigration law), and bogged down by his relative majority. That of a worn-out, aged and tired phoenix, who has acknowledged that he can no longer do things alone. Jupiter is down on one knee. The June 9 European elections are a perilous prospect for Macron, who's whose who's coalition is outstripped in the polls by the Rassemblement National (RN, far-right). And the post-Macron era, which will see wars flare up between his heirs in the aftermath of the Olympic Games, risks undermining the president. "For a long time now, the president has known that January is a crucial time, and that he can't afford to slip up," admitted an adviser. His stagnant five-year term was at a crossroads.
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