Analysis

General policy statement: trial by fire for Gabriel Attal

Gabriel Attal undergoes his trial by fire in the National Assembly. The Prime Minister will deliver his general policy declaration this Tuesday, January 30, but will not seek a vote of confidence from deputies, which is too risky with a relative majority. Gabriel Attal waited three weeks after his appointment by the President of the Republic to take his grand oral exam. A speech under pressure while farmers block access to the capital.

This January 30, it is Gabriel Attal's general policy speech to the deputies: "the challenge for the Prime Minister is to leave his mark, to show in particular that he has substance, charisma, that he can win the majority and emerge from the shadow of the president. AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN

By: Valérie Gas Follow

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When Gabriel Attal takes the podium in the hemicycle of the National Assembly in front of the 577 deputies, the

anger of farmers will rumble at the gates of Paris

. The new Prime Minister surely hoped to express himself in a more serene context. He who gave himself time before embarking on this traditional, but always perilous, exercise.

Since his appointment,

Gabriel Attal

has not been idle. From the first hours of taking office, the new Prime Minister wanted to make an impression with a simple and shocking formula: “ 

one day – one trip 

”. His team immediately announced the color and Gabriel Attal kept the pace, he multiplied on the field. He began his series of trips by going to see the inhabitants of

Pas-de-Calais devastated by the floods

following the transfer of power with Elisabeth Borne. And last Sunday, two days before his general policy declaration, he was in Indre-et-Loire on a farm at the bedside of angry farmers. Going into the field, meeting French people, showing that he is listening, this is the basis of the Attal method which still very much resembles a mixture of the Macron method - "great debate" style - and the Sarkozy – “I am everywhere” way –.

Read alsoSanctions, diesel, Mercosur: what Gabriel Attal announced to French farmers

Make your mark

The challenge for Gabriel Attal is to make his mark, to show in particular that he has substance, charisma, that he can win the majority and come out of the president's shadow. The farmers' protest movement forced Gabriel Attal to go to the front line. Emmanuel Macron at least officially leaves him to maneuver to allow him to “

 exist

 ”, according to an advisor to the Head of State who was in India last week, and is going

this week to Sweden

and Brussels. Gabriel Attal had to fill the media space, he will now have to assert himself in the Hemicycle and show that these three weeks of work have allowed him to give substance to the speech in which he will present his roadmap to Matignon . He has already given some indications on his priorities: work, but also education, health and ecological transition. A roadmap guided by the Élysée, it’s up to him to make it his own.

Under pressure

Gabriel Attal has prepared, but he is under pressure. He will speak while farmers block Paris. And in his speech, it is the progress towards them that will be monitored above all. Gabriel Attal wanted to clear the air before speaking, he is going to speak in the middle of a quagmire facing a majority to come together after several crises and oppositions who will not do him any favors. The left announced that it was going to table a motion of censure before even hearing the speech. The youngest Prime Minister in history is jumping into the deep end and without a buoy.

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