The president of France, Emmanuel Macronnamed this Thursday the right-wing reference, the former Minister of Justice Rachida Datias new Minister of Culture. Thus, it raises the conservative tone of an Executive headed by Gabriel Attal, the youngest prime minister in French history. What remains of Dati Justicia’s passage will be the reform of the country’s judicial map, against the 8,000 French magistrates, who still reproach him for his intransigence and lack of dialogue, and that marked controversial air that surrounds his time in politics.
Macron maintained the hard core of his Government, which will have a new chancellor: the MEP and leader of the presidential party Stephane Sejournéwho will succeed the diplomat Catherine Colonnaannounced the Secretary General of the Presidency, Alexis Kohler.
Dati, 58 years old and current mayor of a Paris district, will take over the Ministry of Culture. Catherine Vautrin, 63, whose past opposition to gay marriage hampered her chances as prime minister in 2022, will serve as labor and health minister.
With these appointments, the centrist president signs two figures who held ministerial positions under conservative presidents: Dati, with Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012), and Vautrin, with Jacques Chirac (1995-2007).
Rachida Dati was also a member of the right-wing opposition party The Republicans (LR), which excluded her from its ranks this Thursday. The Ministers of Economy, Bruno Le Maire; of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin; and Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, who left that party in 2017 to join Macron’s ranks, will continue in their positions, as well as Éric Dupond-Moretti, at the head of Justice.
The Minister of Sports and Olympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, will also assume the National Education portfolio left by Attal, while the new government spokesperson will be Prisca Thevenot, 38, a media face of the ruling party.
Several ministers remain in the new joint government — Marc Fesneau (Agriculture), Christophe Béchu (Ecological Transition) and Sylvie Retailleau (Higher Education) –, although with only men in the ministries considered to be State.
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The new government of Attal, the youngest French prime minister and the first openly gay, will aim to relaunch Macron’s second term in a year marked by the European elections and the Paris Olympics.
Macron commissioned them to promote the industrial, economic, European and civic “rearmament”, as well as the “regeneration” of the country, after the beginning of his mandate without an absolute majority in Parliament and forced to agree with the right of LR on his key reforms.