Thirty-four-year-old Gabriel Attal became France’s youngest prime minister and first openly gay head of government when he was appointed on Tuesday by President Emmanuel Macron.
The shakeup appears designed to reinvigorate Macron’s centrist government ahead of European Parliament elections in the spring, to shore up his legacy and, potentially, to cultivate a successor. Macron wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “I know I can count on your energy and your commitment to implement the rearmament and regeneration project that I have announced.” Attal said in a tweet that he was honored and would work “with strength, humility and without taboos in service of the French people.”