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10 January 2024

A country for young men

Gabriel Attal is France’s latest and youngest prime minister.

By Wolfgang Münchau

Gabriel Attal is the new prime minister of France. At 34, he’s the youngest one in the history of the Fifth Republic (which began in 1958), nominated by its youngest president. Emmanuel Macron expects him to be audacious. It is a risky bet for Macron, himself a symbol of audacity. It will define whether the president’s method will live on or die once his second term finishes.

With Attal’s nomination, Macron reconnects with the spirit that brought him to power in 2017. He chose a candidate no one expected, disrupting the order and acting against the advice of the old guard. There were more plausible candidates, but Macron has given Attal the chance to prove critics of his inexperience wrong.

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