France's Emmanuel Macron has appointed
34-year-old Gabriel Attal as his new prime minister
NATSOUND
Location: Paris, France
Here are five things you should know about him
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At 34, Gabriel Attal is France's youngest post-war prime minister
The record was previously held by Laurent Fabius, 37,
who was named prime minister by Francois Mitterrand in 1984
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Attal is France's first openly gay prime minister
He was outed in 2018 when he was named
a junior minister during Macron's first mandate
(Michel Rose, Senior political correspondent, Reuters)
"Attal is really a young prodigy (...) he brings a lot of dynamism to the political class. What Macron would have really wanted in naming Attal is someone who comes from the left, but who also appeals to conservative voters."
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He is considered one of Macron's savviest cabinet ministers
He joined the Socialist Party at 17 and became a household name
after being named government spokesperson during the global health crisis
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Following his appointment as Education Minister in 2023,
his first move was to ban the Muslim abaya dress in state schools
(Michel Rose, Senior political correspondent, Reuters)
"Basically that really won him a huge popularity boost with conservative voters. And for Macron that's really something precious that he would want to harness for the European elections."
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He recently went on a famous TV show to tell the story of
how he was bullied by a former classmate
He said he was shamed on a blog created to
rate classmates' physiques during the Internet's early days
