Through Hugh SchofieldBBC Information, Paris12 January 2024Image supply, Getty ImagesImage caption, Inside Minister Gérald Darmanin (L), pictured with the brand new PM, used to be a protégé of Nicolas SarkozyFrance’s youngest ever PM Gabriel Attal has stored on lots of the heavyweights from the outgoing govt.However his cupboard – named on Thursday – additionally incorporates some attention-grabbing new faces. Mr Attal’s personal former spouse Stéphane Séjourné is at international affairs, whilst Sarkozy-era minister Rachida Dati is at tradition.The cupboard’s profile is obviously extra skewed to the appropriate than earlier ones below President Emmanuel Macron.Long past it kind of feels is the cautious preservation of left-right stability. As of late the one contributors of the federal government with a previous within the Socialist Celebration (PS) are Mr Attal himself and Mr Séjourné (although Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti additionally has been known with the left previously).Amongst those that got here to Mr Macron from the centre-right Republicans (LR) are Inside Minister Gérald Darmanin, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu – all of whom stay their posts.To their quantity is now added 58-year-old Rachida Dati, who rose to popularity as a tender minister of justice below President Sarkozy in 2007.Outspoken and petite, Ms Dati is held up extra regularly than she would really like as an exemplar of French Republican integration. Certainly one of 11 kids born to a Moroccan-Algerian couple in Chalon-sur-Saône, she battled her technique to the highest by way of pressure of character.Lately she is mayor of the pricy seventh arrondissement of Paris, which incorporates maximum govt structures, and which she has used as a springboard for her avowed ambition to be the following mayor of Paris.Symbol caption, Stéphane Séjourné and Rachida Dati are some of the new names in Mr Attal’s cabinetPolitical insiders had been knocked backwards by way of information of her appointment at tradition, as a result of she used to be no longer observed as a selected buddy of the federal government. She as soon as stated Macronites had been all traitors – both from the left or from the appropriate. Now that she has carried out her personal mini-betrayal, Ms Dati’s club of LR has been suspended. However her recruitment is a coup for Mr Attal. She is a well-recognized face some of the French who – basically – respect her chutzpah.Much less acquainted and not more thrilling a character, however occupying a extra necessary position, is International Minister Stéphane Séjourné.Any thumbnail cartoon of the 38-year-old is certain first of all the truth that he used to be for greater than 5 years the spouse of Mr Attal. In 2017, the 2 Macron-loyalists had been joined by way of a civil partnership (PACS). Mr Attal is France’s first overtly homosexual PM. Mr Séjourné attended key conferences on the Elysée whilst Mr Attal as govt spokesman used to be on the center of policy-making on the top minister’s workplace – making them the splendid Macronite power-couple.Such is the significance connected to the non-reporting of public other folks’s personal lives in France, it used to be simplest this week that we realized that their PACS used to be dissolved in 2022.Introduced up in Madrid and Buenos Aires, Mr Séjourné used to be an early adopter of Macronism and helped arrange the president’s LREM birthday party. He used to be an Elysée adviser earlier than changing into an MEP in 2019 and heading the centrist bloc within the EU parliament, Renew. Greater than his predecessor Catherine Colonna, he’ll benefit from the self assurance of President Macron – which is as smartly as a result of it’s the president who units international coverage anyway.Catherine Vautrin, 63-year-old president of the higher Reims metropolitan space, takes over as a brand new super-minister of well being and labour. She is some other defector from the appropriate, having served as a junior minister below President Chirac.Some will recall that Ms Vautrin voted towards homosexual marriage in 2013, although she has since stated she regretted no longer seeing how society used to be converting.Ms Vautrin could also be with regards to the previous president Nicolas Sarkozy. Certainly, there at the moment are 3 Sarkozy protégés in govt: Ms Vautrin, Ms Dati and Mr Darmanin. This has no longer long gone overlooked. It’s also well known that Mr Macron himself and the 68 year-old Sarkozy have a cordial dating and communicate frequently.
