A 34-year-old man, Gabriel Attal has just become France's youngest-ever prime minister. He replaces a woman who was head of government for 20 months, in a particularly trying context with only a relative majority in Parliament. Elisabeth Borne leaves with her head held high and a sense of duty accomplished. She has wiped the slate clean of the only woman who preceded her in this position, Edith Cresson, who fell victim to the prevailing machismo and was dismissed in less than a year (May 1991-April 1992). Seen from this angle, the change of prime minister announced on Tuesday, January, 9 is in keeping with the spirit of the early days of the Emmanuel Macron era: The emphasis is on boldness and youthfulness, but protocol is respected.

This much-vaunted return to his roots nonetheless appears to be an obligatory move for Macron. If the president – renowned for his vertical governing style and his determination not to spread out power too thinly – has resolved to appoint a younger man, just as ambitious but far more popular, to the post of head of government, it's because he had to act. Less than two years have passed since his re-election and the political movement he embodies is in deep trouble, threatened by the momentum of the far-right Rassemblement National and the desire for revenge among the parties it supplanted. If his party, Renaissance, suffers a setback in the European elections in June, opponents will consider it to be the end of an era.

A rapid change in responsibilities

To avoid this risk, the president took two others. Firstly, to showcase a new generation that it would have been in his interest to see mature a little longer. Secondly, to accept that a de facto competition is being played out before the French people – between a model and a copy of that model, and between this copy and the other contenders: the same ambition, the same audacity, the same ability to skip steps on the traditional ladder to political power.

Coming from the ranks of the Parti Socialiste, the new prime minister however in no way represents the revenge of the left wing of the majority on the right wing, following the turmoil caused by the adoption of the immigration law (when Macron's camp was forced to make concessions to the far right to get the legislation through). Attal, the now former education minister, was chosen because the popularity he built up in less than six months in that role is fully in line with the roadmap laid out by Macron: banning the abaya, overhauling curricula and promising to raise student standards and restore teachers' authority. Attal responded to Macron's demands with a rapid and steady stream of powerful announcements. In doing so, he proved that pushing the president's policies, if well sold, was not synonymous with chronic unpopularity. For the president, it's a lesson to be learned.

A lot will be asked of the new prime minister over the next few months: getting the country out of the doldrums, connecting with the French, playing his part in the European election campaign, leading the majority, overcoming the jealousy of the older members of the party and taming the Assemblée Nationale, which has made life hard for Borne. Having been government spokesman for almost two years, Attal is certainly familiar with the challenges. But for him, the change in responsibilities is so rapid that the question cannot be avoided: Is he up to the task? Moreover, it will be hard to forgive him for abandoning education as quickly as he took it over, without having taken the time to put his promises into practice. If the handover is not perfectly mastered at the Ministry of Education, the change that has just taken place risks looking like a worrying whirlwind.