Attal government: what lessons can we learn from it?

Jacques Serais / Photo credits: LUDOVIC MARIN / POOL / AFP 8:07 a.m., February 9, 2024

A month after the appointment of Gabriel Attal to Matignon, the new government is finally complete. The Élysée sent its press release Thursday evening to unveil the list of the new government team. 20 new ministers and secretaries are added to the 14 ministers already in office for four weeks. What lessons can we learn from this?

>> READ ALSO

- Reshuffle: Belloubet, Oudéa-Castéra, Valletoux... Discover the composition of the Attal government

A form of continuity

Zero surprises. Emmanuel Macron, who last month called on his ministers to have “audacity, more audacity, always audacity”, did not apply this recommendation to himself. This government is more in line with a form of continuity than with a desire for rupture. Of the 20 personalities appointed Thursday, only five are new entrants. 

The political balances remain the same. Despite François Bayrou's coup two days ago, the MoDem keeps exactly the same number of ministers as in the previous government with four representatives. 

Left turn

And after the nod to the right with the poaching of LR Rachida Dati for Culture last month, the Head of State is this time heading to the left by appointing the former Minister of Justice, from the Socialist Party, Nicole Belloubet, at National Education. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra therefore loses her rue de Grenelle morocco but she still remains in government, keeping the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A reshuffle marked with the seal of “at the same time”, both in form and in substance, where the signature of Emmanuel Macron very clearly takes precedence over that of Gabriel Attal.