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Transfer of power between Elisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal, the new prime minister, at the Matignon hotel, in Paris, January 9, 2024.

It is sort of 2:30 p.m. this Tuesday, January 9, when Gabriel Attal slowly advances in direction of rue de Varenne. At 34, Matignon supplied himself to him, promising to write down him in historical past because the youngest prime minister of the Ve Republic. It’s an finish to the limitless “waiting bubble” wherein, in keeping with their phrases, the members of the Rue de Grenelle cupboard had been locked up.

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When it was time to formally take up his duties, Gabriel Attal held his speech with a trembling hand, as if dizzy. He warned in a telephone name the boss of the presidential Renaissance occasion, his former companion, Stéphane Séjourné, earlier than some other political chief, of this dazzling promotion, six months after his appointment to the Ministry of National Education. Hasn’t Gabriel Attal simply set foot in “hell”, the nickname of Matignon, a home able to destroying promising reputation and thwarting presidential ambitions, similar to these of Jacques Chaban-Delmas, in 1974, or Edouard Balladur , in 1995 ?

The thirty-year-old, alleged to embody within the eyes of the President of the Republic the “Macron generation”, in keeping with the Elysée system, as there was a “Mitterrand generation”, believes in his star. “The youngest President of the Republic in history has appointed the youngest Prime Minister in history”, he says alongside Elisabeth Borne resigned to becoming a member of the benches of the National Assembly as a deputy for Calvados. Making his youth a pledge “audacity”Gabriel Attal guarantees to take “at Matignon the cause of the school”, there “ mother of all battles »he said, thinking with this formula to remedy the frustration of professors stunned by his hasty departure from the ministry.

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Repeating the ” gratitude ” that he feels towards the head of state, he responds to those who question the meaning of his appointment by setting himself up as “symbol of the confidence placed in youth, this generation which deserves to be fought for tirelessly”and underlines his concern for the middle classes, ” Beating coronary heart ” of the country, who work, but “can’t be found there anymore”. Then concluded his speech with a word for the oppositions, which his predecessor had often castigated. “I tell them that we have the destiny of our nation in common,” he says, before heading off to Pas-de-Calais to support the families affected by the floods.

Read additionally: Article reserved for our subscribers Floods in Pas-de-Calais: for his first trip, Gabriel Attal faces the dismay of elected officials

“Solidarity of sailors”

In the night, Emmanuel Macron awaits him on the Elysée to work on a brand new authorities workforce, anticipated within the days to return. Before 11 p.m., Gérald Darmanin, undermined by the fiasco of the immigration legislation which tore the presidential camp aside on the finish of December 2023, introduced by his workplace that he was “assured” to remain at Place Beauvau. On the opposite hand, the ministers who, throughout the adoption of this textual content voted by the far proper, expressed their discomfort, like Clément Beaune (transport), are nervous. “Emmanuel Macron thinks that in times of storm, it is better to have the solidarity of sailors”we snap on the Elysée.

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https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2024/01/10/gabriel-attal-a-matignon-des-tenors-de-la-majorite-a-l-elysee-les-coulisses-d-une-nomination-disputee_6209975_823448.html