Salut!

Gabriel Attal: should the French wonder how Le Boy Wonder will do?

 

French politics: a very special, sometimes frenzied sphere and one I enjoy writing about. Oddly enough, I didn’t initially propose an analytical piece to The National on the elevation of 34-year-ôld Gabriel Attal to the role of prime minister. I misjudged what interest there’d be given how how firmly real power in France resides in the presidency. The National came to me. This - which you can see in original form at the newspaper's site  - is the result …

 

The next time political pundits mock British Conservatives for having worked their way, with scant success, through so many prime ministers – five in their 13 years of power – they should perhaps cast a glance across the English Channel at France, where an unpopular President, Emmanuel Macron, has announced his fourth in just seven years of office.

Mr Macron’s choice as successor to the earnest but beleaguered Elisabeth Borne is the youngest to hold the office in modern times. Gabriel Attal, just 34, has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top and is regarded as the best-liked member of the centrist government, even though the administration’s inability to win public hearts and minds suggests he is merely the figure voters dislike least.

In many ways, Mr Attal is the mirror image of the President who, for now, is also his cheerleader.

Image: Conseil de l'Union Européenne

Out with the old but will the new year be any better ?

Well 2023 was hardly a year to remember for good reasons. What will 2024 bring? In my piece for The National, I struggle to sound an optimistic note…. 

 

Amid the profound uncertainty, hopes and fears that dominate thoughts as Europe enters 2024, some predictions can be made with confidence and have the power to impose radical change on the continent and its way of life. 

 

Beyond reasonable doubt, the terrible suffering of Gaza, itself following the horrendous attack of October 7, will continue to cause not only deep shock but deep division across Europe. While there remains great sympathy for Israelis killed, maimed or bereaved by Hamas, millions are also appalled at a military response that seems as indiscriminate and frankly inhuman as terrorist atrocities. These divisions are sure to assume increasing prominence.