Gabriel Attal: Macron's pick for PM is France's youngest at 34
JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP
Image caption,
President Macron's party faces a strong challenge from National Rally and its young leader Jordan Bardella - as well as Marine Le Pen
And, all the while, he managed to buck the normal trends by actually becoming popular among the public.
Polls show that he is by far the most admired member of the Macron government - competing at the same level as the president's main enemy, the nationalist Marine Le Pen and her youthful colleague Jordan Bardella.
And there, of course, is the heart of it.
By drawing Gabriel Attal from his pack of ministers, Mr Macron is using an ace to outplay the queen and her jack. But will it work?
The drawn-out process of naming him - everyone knew a reshuffle was coming but it took forever - shows that if President Macron is well aware of the weakness of his current position, he has also been in deep uncertainty over how to address it.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne attends the questions to the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, November 22, 2023
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
Mr Attal replaces Élisabeth Borne but is likely to face the same problems she had without a majority in the National Assembly
More than one commentator has made the obvious point that what the public wants above all now is not so much a rearrangement of faces at the top, but a new sense of purpose to the Macron presidency.
But as things stand, Mr Attal will face exactly the same problems as did his long-suffering predecessor Élisabeth Borne.
These are: a hard-right opposition that is surging in popularity and looks set to win easily in June's European elections; a National Assembly with no in-built majority for the government, making every new law a struggle; and a president who seems unable to define what he wants his second term to achieve.
On top of which, the new prime minister will have a problem all of his own - which is establishing his authority over such heavyweights as Gérald Darmanin and Bruno Le Maire.
And what is the plan, some are also asking, if as seems likely Mr Macron's party loses heavily in the European elections?
Normally that would be the occasion for a prime ministerial replacement, to give a new élan for the second half of the mandate. But, as things stand, that card has already been played, and in the event of a defeat in June Gabriel Attal risks drifting on as a discredited loser.
Even opposition figures recognise that he is a class act. He is respected and liked in the National Assembly.
But there are also questions about what he actually stands for. The suspicion for many is that he is all smiles and verbiage, much like the man to whom he owes his career.
As the president's nominee, he is the wunderkind's wunderkind. But if he is only Macron's mini-me, the marvel could prove a mirage.
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