Gabriel Attal

Gabriel Nissim Attal de Couriss (French: [ɡabʁijɛl atal] ^ⓘ; born 16 March 1989) is a French politician who has served as the General Secretary of Renaissance since December 2024 and president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly since September 2024. He previously served as the prime minister of France from January to September 2024. He was the youngest and the first openly gay prime minister in French history. He previously served in various ministerial positions.

Following his election to the National Assembly in the 2017 French legislative election, Attal became the junior minister to the minister of national education and youth in 2018, which made him the youngest person to serve in the Government of France since the establishment of the Fifth Republic. He later served as the spokesperson of the government in 2020; the minister of public action and accounts in 2022; and the minister of national education and youth in 2023. On 9 January 2024, amid a major government crisis, Attal was appointed to replace Élisabeth Borne as the prime minister by French president Emmanuel Macron, at age 34.

Attal led the ruling Ensemble coalition into the legislative election in June 2024 after Macron dissolved the National Assembly following the defeat in the earlier European Parliament election. The snap election resulted in another hung parliament and electoral defeat for the government. Attal resigned as prime minister in July and remained as head of a caretaker government until Michel Barnier succeeded him on 5 September 2024.

Attal was born on 16 March 1989 in Clamart, Île-de-France. He grew up in the 13th and 14th arrondissements of Paris with three sisters. His father, Yves Attal, was a lawyer and film producer; his mother, Marie de Couriss, worked as an employee of a film production company. His father was Jewish and his mother a Russian Orthodox Christian; Attal was raised in his mother's Orthodox Christian faith.

Attal attended the École alsacienne, an exclusive private school in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. He obtained a Baccalauréat with a mention très bien in 2007. He went on to study law at Panthéon-Assas University from 2008 to 2011, and earned a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po in 2012. He also spent a year (2009–2010) working with Éric de Chassey, director of the French Academy in Rome.

His earliest political activity was participation in the 2006 youth protests in France. Taking up a place at Sciences Po in 2007, he created a committee for the support of Íngrid Betancourt, the Franco-Colombian hostage held by the FARC.

After an internship at the French National Assembly with Marisol Touraine during the 2012 presidential campaign, Attal worked for five years as an assistant to the Minister of Health, a role which involved parliamentary liaison and speechwriting.

In the 2014 municipal elections, Attal was placed fifth on the Socialist Party list. He was elected as one of the four Socialist Party councillors of Vanves and took over the lead of the opposition, after the resignation of the head of the socialist list.