Attal government | |
---|---|
44th Government of French Fifth Republic | |
Date formed | 9 January 2024 |
People and organisations | |
President of the Republic | Emmanuel Macron |
Prime Minister | Gabriel Attal |
No. of ministers | 34 [lower-alpha 1] |
Member parties | |
Status in legislature |
|
Opposition parties | |
History | |
Legislature term(s) | |
Predecessor | Borne government |
The Attal government (French: gouvernement Attal) is the forty-fourth and most recent government of the French Fifth Republic, formed on 9 January 2024 and headed by Gabriel Attal as Prime Minister under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. [1]
The Attal cabinet is a three-party minority government as a result of the 2022 legislative election that left the governing coalition short of an absolute majority in Parliament.
In late December 2023, the passage of an immigration and asylum bill originating from a deal struck between Borne's minority government and the conservative LR party left Macron's governing coalition in political crisis, especially after some left-leaning ministers threatened to resign if the bill was passed, something which was seen as a major breach of collective responsibility, while scores of Macronist deputies defied the government by either abstaining or voting against the legislation. [2] Hours after the bill was passed, Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned in protest; Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau offered her resignation as well although President Macron refused it. [3] Others, such as Transport Minister Clément Beaune, voiced their opposition to the bill but did not quit. [4]
As 2024 approached, news media began to speculate about a potential change of prime minister in a last-ditch effort by Macron both to revive his second presidential term and reassert his diminished political authority. [5]
When Élisabeth Borne resigned as prime minister on 8 January 2024, she made clear in her resignation letter that she was not doing so of her own initiative but rather to comply with Macron's will to replace her with a new officeholder. In her letter, she also quoted a line from her distant predecessor Michel Rocard's own resignation letter, a reference to the fact that, like him, she was compelled to resign by the President while she would have wanted to carry on as head of government. [6]
Legal scholar Ariane Vidal-Naquet, in an op-ed in Le Monde , said that Borne's "forced resignation" was "not consistent with the Constitution" even though it is widely accepted under a presidential interpretation of the Constitution. [7]
After Borne resigned on 8 January, she remained prime minister in a caretaking capacity until handing over to Attal a day later.
In the run-up to Gabriel Attal's appointment as prime minister, news media cited several politicians as main contenders for the premiership: Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, former National Assembly President Richard Ferrand, former Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie and Environment Minister Christophe Béchu were among the names cited for Macron's pick. [8]
Hours before the appointment, when Attal emerged as the most likely pick for the premiership, several prominent figures inside Macron's camp, such as junior coalition partners François Bayrou (MoDem party leader) and Édouard Philippe (Horizons party leader and Macron's prime minister from 2017 to 2020) or incumbent government ministers such as Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, reportedly opposed the pick and tried to weigh in on the presidential decision. [9]
Prior to being appointed as prime minister, Attal was the most popular minister in Macron's cabinet according to polling data. Upon taking office, Attal became both the youngest head of government in French modern history and youngest state leader in the world. He is also the first openly LGBT person to lead a French government.
The new Attal cabinet was widely described as the most right-leaning government since the start of the Macron presidency: out of the 14 cabinet ministers appointed on 11 January 2024 by Macron, 57% are former members of the conservative UMP/LR party. [10] Furthermore, right-leaning politicians are left holding the largest government portfolios, such as the Interior, Finance, Defence, Labour, Health, Culture and Environment, a political configuration seen as indicating a tilt to the right. [11]
Additionally, longtime Macron allies and prominent left-leaning ministers of the outgoing Borne government, such as Rima Abdul-Malak (Culture), Clément Beaune (Transport) and Olivier Véran (Spokesperson), were sacked as part of the reshuffle.
On 16 January 2024, Attal announced that, like Élisabeth Borne before him, he would not be seeking a vote of confidence in the National Assembly as it is implicitly allowed in the French Constitution. If a confidence vote were to take place, Attal's government would likely fall since it is 39 seats short of an overall majority in the lower house. [12]
As it was widely expected, left-wing LFI leader Manuel Bompard announced that his parliamentary group would table a motion of no confidence in response to Attal's decision. [13] The no-confidence motion substantially failed to receive enough votes to topple the cabinet since right-wing parties refused to support the attempt at this early stage in the government's tenure.
As it is customary, Secretary General of the Presidency Alexis Kohler announced the new government's composition on 11 January 2024 from the Élysée Palace. Members of the previous government remained in office under a caretaking capacity until the appointment of the new government, as provided for in the French Constitution.
In February 2024, a second raft of government appointments took place: the total number of government ministers went up from 14 to 34. Apart from the numerous junior ministerial appointments, notably, the ministries of National Education and Sports, which had been merged in January through Amélie Oudéa-Castéra's appointment as Education and Sports minister, were once again de-merged. Oudéa-Castéra was demoted, returning as Sports minister, and former Justice minister Nicole Belloubet replaced her as Education minister. Additionally, Stanislas Guerini was re-appointed as Civil Service minister.
Portfolio | Attached minister | Name | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|
State Secretary for Digital Affairs | Minister of Economy, Finances and Industrial & Digital Sovereignty | Marina Ferrari | MoDem | |
State Secretary for Cities and Citizenship | Minister of the Interior and Overseas Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion | Sabrina Agresti-Roubache | RE | |
State Secretary for Veterans and Remembrance | Minister of the Armed Forces | Patricia Mirallès | RE | |
State Secretary for Development and International Partnerships | Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs | Chrysoula Zacharopoulou | RE | |
State Secretary for the Sea and Biodiversity | Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion | Hervé Berville | RE | |
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron is a French politician who has been President of France since 2017. Macron is ex officio one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. He previously was Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs under President François Hollande from 2014 to 2016 and Deputy Secretary-General to the President from 2012 to 2014. He is a founding member of Renaissance, a centrist political party.
Élisabeth Borne is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2022 to 2024. She is a member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance. Borne is the second woman to hold the position of Prime Minister after Édith Cresson, who served from 1991 to 1992.
The second Philippe government was the forty-first government of the French Fifth Republic. It was the second government formed by Édouard Philippe under President Emmanuel Macron, following the 2017 legislative election and the dissolution of the first Philippe government on 19 June 2017.
Sébastien Lecornu is a French politician who serves as Minister of the Armed Forces in the government of successive Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal since 20 May 2022.
Jean-Noël Barrot is a French politician of the Democratic Movement (MoDem) who has been serving as the Secretary of State for European Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal since 2024. He previously was Minister for Digital Transition and Telecommunications (France) in the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne from 2022 to 2024.
Aurore Bergé is a French politician who has been serving as Minister for Gender Equality and Fight against discriminations in the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal since January 2024.
Gabriel Nissim Attal de Couriss is a French politician serving as the Prime Minister of France since January 2024.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra is a French businesswoman and former professional tennis player who has been serving as Minister of Youth, Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games in the government of successive Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal since May 2022.
Stéphane Séjourné is a French lawyer and politician of Renaissance who has been serving as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal since 2024.
Jean Castex is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 3 July 2020 to 16 May 2022. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) until 2020, when he joined La République En Marche! (LREM). Castex served for twelve years as mayor of the small town of Prades prior to his appointment as Prime Minister by President Emmanuel Macron. He resigned his post ahead of the 2022 legislative election. He has been president of the state-owned RATP since November 2022.
The Castex government was the forty-second government of the French Fifth Republic, formed on 3 July 2020 and headed by Jean Castex as Prime Minister under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. It was dissolved on 16 May 2022, after Élisabeth Borne was selected as prime minister following the re-election of Macron.
Sylvie Retailleau is a French physicist and politician who has been serving as Minister of Higher Education in the government of successive Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal since 20 May 2022. She served as president of Paris-Sud University from 2016 to 2022.
This is a regrouping of the election results for cabinet ministers during the 2022 French legislative election.
The Borne government was the forty-third government of the French Fifth Republic, formed on 16 May 2022 and headed by Élisabeth Borne as Prime Minister under President Emmanuel Macron. It served as a caretaker government until 9 January 2024 when Gabriel Attal was appointed Prime Minister by Macron.
Aurélien Rousseau is a French civil servant and politician who has briefly served as Minister of Health and Prevention in the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne in 2023.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in France on 11 April 2027, with a second round on 25 April if required. The elections may be held earlier under exceptional circumstances, such as the resignation or death of the incumbent president Emmanuel Macron. Macron is not eligible to run in the 2027 elections, as he is limited to two consecutive terms in office.
Emmanuel Macron carried out the second major reshuffle of his minority government, led by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, in July 2023. Following the "hundred days of appeasement and action" Macron called for in April 2023, the reshuffle had been highly anticipated and briefed in the press. There were reports of a potential change of prime minister and likely removal of ministers who had not drawn enough attention on their departments' policies or ministers who had underperformed the President's expectations. The reshuffle was seen as an opportunity for Macron to "reset" his presidency, after the contentious passage of a pension system reform and the 2023 French riots, and reassert his authority, significantly diminished following the result of the legislative election the previous year. Despite expectations that the reshuffle was to be pivotal to the rest of Macron's second term and that it would indicate a clear, fresh political direction for the country, few changes to the cabinet's composition were made and, crucially, Borne retained her position as head of government. Overall, the operation was interpreted as a fallback reshuffle, in a sense that the President sought to close ranks around his leadership by rewarding loyalist politicians, pushing out civil society figures and minimally altering existing political balances inside his Cabinet. Nevertheless, the removal of education minister Pap Ndiaye was seen as a concession to conservative and far-right critics.
On 4 July 2022, Emmanuel Macron carried out the first reshuffle of his minority government, led by Prime minister Élisabeth Borne, since the start of his second presidential term. As it is customary that the Prime minister offers the resignation of their government after a legislative election under the Fifth Republic, a cabinet reshuffle was anticipated. However, the unexpected outcome of the June 2022 legislative election that saw President Macron's centrist coalition losing its majority in Parliament changed the dynamics and nature of the reshuffle: falling 38 seats short of an overall majority in the National Assembly and with 3 ministers having lost their seats, the cabinet had to undergo broader changes than expected.
Patrice Vergriete is a French politician who has been serving as Minister Delegate for Transport in the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. He previously was the Mayor of Dunkirk.
In December 2023, the Borne government faced a governability and credibility crisis. It was caused mainly by the difficult passage of the 2023 immigration and asylum bill, one of Emmanuel Macron's flagship manifesto commitments made during the 2022 presidential election.