At 39, Emmanuel Macron was France’s youngest head of state since Napoleon Bonaparte. 

At 34, Gabriel Attal is the youngest prime minister in modern French history, beating Laurent Fabius, who was 37 when appointed by Francois Mitterrand in 1984.

In his acceptance speech on Tuesday, Mr Attal said both records are “symbols of daring and movement”.

He is also the country’s first openly gay head of government, in a civil partnership with the MEP Stephane Sejourne, and his prime ministerial role could see him groomed to run for French president when Mr Macron is forced to bow out in three years after two terms.

“He’ll have to go through puberty first,” one former top Elysee aide quipped to The Telegraph in a cruel suggestion that Mr Attal’s high voice and youth could prove a handicap.

In a country in which the president acts a “Republican monarch” and calls the shots, the post could also prove his political downfall and see him labelled a “Macron clone” – a label opposition politicians have already adopted.

Matignon – the central Parisian mansion that is France’s answer to Number 10 Downing Street – has been described as “hell” by previous occupants, who are expected to run the day-to-day affairs of state, act as an “airbag and lightning rod” for the president (as Jean-Marc Raffarin, an ex-prime minister, put it) and fall on their sword in times of turbulence.

This was the case for Elisabeth Borne, Mr Macron’s loyal and long-suffering prime minister, who struggled with the lack of a majority in parliament and was forced to step down on Monday after 20 months as the president seeks to revive his second term.

However, there are notable exceptions. Edouard Philippe, Mr Macron’s first prime minister, who harked from the Right, was fired in July 2020 – for being too popular, some claimed – and is now considered to be a likely presidential candidate in 2027.

Mr Attal is equally well-liked by the French after a headline-grabbing stint as education minister, and December’s monthly Ipsos “barometer” poll crowned him the country’s most popular politician, knocking Mr Philippe off the top spot.

Like his boss, the “Macron boy”, as the media calls him, is known for being an incredibly hard worker and more of a natural political animal than his dry, technocratic predecessor.

Handsome, charming, pugnacious and with a gift for cogent soundbites and pithy putdowns, he will have the task of leading the French government into key European Parliament elections in June – the last major ballot before the 2027 presidential election.

His rise has been rapid. A decade ago, he was an unknown aide in the health ministry and a card-carrying member of the Socialists. At 29, he became the youngest ever minister in the Fifth Republic with a junior post at education. From 2020, he was government spokesman and his public profile started to rise. 

After Mr Macron’s re-election in 2022, he was briefly appointed budget minister and then took over at education last July.

One of the earliest Macron loyalists, he was seduced by his mentor’s mission to dynamite France’s political landscape and conduct Left and Right-wing policies “at the same time” under his Renaissance banner.

As education minister he appeared to pull that off, managing to have an exceptionally good working relationship with most Left-wing teaching unions while also receiving plaudits from the Right by taking firm action to end September’s row over Muslim abaya robes by banning them in schools.

He mounted a high-profile drive against bullying – and gained plaudits for confessing he had been a victim at the private Ecole alsacienne in Paris – and took on the education establishment with a proposal to launch a widespread experiment with school uniforms, receiving the backing of Brigitte Macron.

By far the most admired member of the Macron government, Mr Attal is one of the few able to compete in popularity terms with the president’s main enemy, the nationalist Marine Le Pen, and her youthful colleague Jordan Bardella, who at 28 is even younger than him.

Polls suggest Ms Le Pen’s National Rally is on course to trounce Mr Macron’s Renew group, whose campaign is likely to be run by Mr Sejourne. 

While Mr Attal and Mr Sejourne deny being one of France’s top power couples, Le Monde says they form a formidable partnership – even if Mr Sejourne has lost political clout while that of his partner has rocketed.

While he may be a fresh face, Mr Attal faces the same seemingly intractable problems in the National Assembly as his predecessor, with the Macron camp’s lack of a majority making every law a trial against a surging hard-Right opposition and a turbulent Left.

Ms Borne faced huge flak for bypassing a parliamentary vote dozens of times to avoid defeat. How Mr Attal will handle this hot potato and forge alliances with the conservative Republicans remains to be seen.

That said, many see him as a Right-winger, with Eric Ciotti, the Republican leader, suggesting on Tuesday that his appointment heralded the end of Macron’s “at the same time” politics.

Above all, it will take all his political skills to help redefine Mr Macron’s hazy – some would say rudderless – political vision for the coming three years. The president’s entourage has come out with a woolly statement that he wants France to “rearm civically”, in particular through schools, “rearm industrially” and “rearm Europe” in the run-up to the European elections.

He also may find it hard to establish his authority  over cabinet heavyweights including Gerald Darmanin and Bruno Le Maire, who have retained their posts as interior and finance minister.

Mr Attal is the first to admit that he owes his career to Mr Macron, recently telling Le Parisien: “Some in the government had a political life before he came to power. That’s not my case. I owe him absolutely everything.” On Tuesday, the president told him: “I know I can count on your energy and commitment.”

He had seized a political chance to shine by appearing on a primetime TV  chat show with a string of opposition heavyweights as the yellow vest revolt erupted in 2018. All his direct superiors had cried off. Mr Macron was duly impressed.

In his acceptance speech on Tuesday, he set out his main political priorities to “unleash France’s potential, saying: “First... working must always be valued more highly than not working, while inflation, I know, continues to weigh heavily on the lives of the French.

“Secondly, this is act two of the liberation of our economy, in particular with the drastic simplification of life for our businesses and entrepreneurs. And finally, we need to take resolute action for our young people, whose talent is just waiting to be unleashed.”