The race to become France’s next president heated up over the weekend, as former prime minister Gabriel Attal, 37, announced that he intends to run for the Élysée Palace after Emmanuel Macron leaves office next year.
French law allows presidents to serve only two five-year terms. Macron will complete a decade in power next year, and as his departure approaches, the list of politicians seeking to replace him is growing.
Hovering over the race is the fear among France’s center and left that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally could make historic gains, and possibly win the presidency.
Attal, a member of Macron’s center-right Renaissance party, made history in 2024 when he became France’s youngest-ever prime minister at 34, as well as the first openly gay man to hold the job.
He launched his presidential bid over the weekend in the southern village of Mur-de-Barrez, the kind of rural area where France’s political center hopes to improve its standing against Le Pen’s National Rally in the 2027 election.
“I can no longer bear this kind of French politics, where all we talk about is 50 shades of managing decline,” Attal said at the launch event.
Attal joins a crowded presidential field that already includes Édouard Philippe, 55, another former prime minister from the center-right; Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 74, the veteran hard-left firebrand known for his sharply anti-Israel positions; and Bruno Retailleau of the conservative Republicans.
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Far-left leader Mélenchon. The race could come down to him against the far right
(Photo: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch)
Above them all looms Le Pen, the expected far-right candidate, though she can run only if a court accepts her appeal on July 7 against her corruption conviction. If the appeal fails, the party’s candidate is expected to be Jordan Bardella, her 30-year-old protégé. Polls suggest he could perform at least as well as Le Pen, and possibly better.
Attal, who was educated at leading schools in Paris, has often been compared to Macron, who was 39 when he was elected president in 2017 and became France’s youngest head of state since Napoleon. Attal will turn 38 in March, shortly before the presidential election scheduled for April.
In what appeared to be an effort to prepare the ground for his presidential run, Attal published a book last month in which he devoted a chapter to his partner, European commissioner and former minister Stéphane Séjourné, whom he called “the man of my life.”
Attal, whose father was Jewish and whose full name is Gabriel Nissim Attal de Couriss, wrote that he had experienced both antisemitism and homophobia. He has previously said that he is Russian Orthodox Christian on his mother’s side.
Although Attal serves as secretary-general of Macron’s party, he has distanced himself somewhat from the president in recent years, particularly after Macron dissolved the lower house of parliament in 2024, abruptly cutting short Attal’s brief term as prime minister.
Macron made that decision in an attempt to halt the rise of the far right, shortly after Le Pen’s party scored a major victory in European Parliament elections. The gamble failed. The snap election that followed strengthened the far right in parliament and produced months of political deadlock. National Rally became the largest party in the National Assembly.
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French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, Attal’s partner. 'The man of my life'
(Photo: Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
Attal rose quickly through French politics after entering public life in his early 20s. He was elected to the lower house of parliament in 2017 and later served as government spokesperson and budget minister.
As education minister from 2023 to 2024, he fought bullying in schools and banned female students from wearing the abaya, a loose traditional Muslim garment that covers the body from the shoulders to the feet.
Macron’s Renaissance party has often been criticized as too detached from ordinary voters and the French periphery. Attal’s decision to launch his campaign in rural France was intended to signal solidarity with those voters.
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On a tour of rural France. 'Our most beautiful chapters are still ahead of us'
(Photo: Ed JONES / AFP)
“The day we remain locked in Parisian offices, in government offices, is the day politics stops,” he said. “After traveling extensively across France and meeting many French people, I have reached a very strong belief: our most beautiful chapters are still ahead of us.”
Attal is expected to face a difficult battle against Philippe, who served as prime minister early in Macron’s presidency and now leads his own center-right party, Horizons.
According to polls, Philippe is currently the only center-right candidate who could defeat a far-right rival in the second round of voting. In every other scenario, for now, either Le Pen or Bardella would enter the Élysée Palace.
Philippe also appears in polls to have the best chance of keeping Mélenchon out of the second round, preventing a direct choice between the hard left and far right, a scenario considered a nightmare by France’s political mainstream.
According to reports, Philippe is hoping Le Pen’s appeal will be rejected and that he will instead face Bardella, whom he believes could be weakened by his lack of experience. Le Pen, 57, is seen as a seasoned and tough politician with deep ties to voters across the country.