Gabriel Attal, France’s newly appointed Prime Minister, is Orthodox Christian and Greek from his mother’s side, and Tunisian Jewish from his father’s.
The youngest prime minister ever, the 34-year-old Attal took office on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, replacing Elisabeth Born. Attal is also the first openly gay leader of the French government. His partner is 38-year-old Stephane Sezurne, the president’s advisor and one of the frontrunners to lead his party’s ticket in the June European elections.
Gabriel Attal is the son of the late lawyer and film producer Yves Attal and Marie de Couriss, who also worked in a film production company. His father, Gabriel Attal, who passed away in 2015, was a French-Tunisian Jew, while his mother comes from a Greek Orthodox Christian background in Odessa, Ukraine.
Attal grew up in Paris with his three younger sisters, and he uses the full name Gabriel Attal de Couriss. Gabriel Attal’s parents had three children together but divorced in 2000.
Despite being Orthodox, Attal mentioned in an interview that he has experienced anti-Semitism in his life due to his father’s name, something his father had warned him about before passing away.In 2019, Attal told Libération, as reported by The Guardian: “My father told me: You are Orthodox, but you will feel Jewish all your life, mainly because you will suffer from anti-Semitism due to your name.”
“My father told me: You are Orthodox, but you will feel Jewish all your life, mainly because you will suffer from anti-Semitism due to your name.” Gabriel Attal PM of France
Gabriel Attal has previously served as a minister for finance, and education in Emmanuel Macron’s government. He is considered one of the most adept politicians in the French president’s cabinet.
Emerging from the movement of young supporters of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Gabriel Attal was among the first Socialists to follow Emmanuel Macron when he founded the En Marche! party in 2016, which served as his springboard to the Élysée Palace.His appointment came when, in the second presidential term, Macron was facing severe challenges.
Without a majority in the National Assembly and confronting the rise of the far right, the French president struggles to breathe life into his second term.
