France Gives Up On Meritocracy

Can you guess where France's youngest Prime Minister graduated from?

Yesterday, seemingly out of the blue, France’s second ever female Prime Minister resigned after pressure from President Emmanuel Macron. Elisabeth Borne had only been appointed in May 2022 but her pension and immigration reforms were apparently too much for Macron who wants to make a cabinet reshuffle in the near-future.

Macron replaced Borne with Gabriel Attal, a man who likes breaking records. In 2018 he became Junior Minister to the Minister of National Education and Youth which made him the youngest person to serve in the Government of France. Now, at the age of 34, he has become the youngest French Prime Minister. He is also the first openly gay French Prime Minister and the youngest person at present to serve as head of state or government in the world¹.

But how does a 34 year old become Prime Minister out of the blue? Many French citizens are not happy, including Arnaud Bertrand, an entrepreneur who founded HouseTrip which was later sold to TripAdvisor.

Following the appointment of Attal, Bertrand said that “France is simply not a serious country anymore”. He goes on to list his CV (which I have added to):

• Attal’s father is a lawyer and film producer and his mother worked at a film production company;

• He studied at École Alsacienne, which is one of the poshest secondary schools in Paris;

• After school, Attal studied law at Panthéon-Assas University before receiving a Masters in Public Affairs from Sciences Po in 2012;

• In 2012 he joined as an intern at the French National Assembly where he was involved with parliamentary liaison and speechwriting for the Minister of Health;

• Straight after this, Attal was elected to the French National Assembly in 2017 before being named as chairperson of La République En Marche! (Macron’s party) a few months later in 2018;

• A few months after that, he was appointed Junior Minister to the Minister of National Education and Youth;

• Attal became government spokesperson during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022;

• In May 2022 he was appointed as Minister of Public Action and Accounts;

• He became Minister of National Education and Youth a year later;

• Yesterday, he became Prime Minister.

Clearly the guy has brains but as Bertrand puts it “So here we have a guy who graduated university only 12 years ago, only has 6 years work experience at a job with actual "responsibilities" and half that time he was a spokesperson (i.e. a press secretary). He has never worked (or even studied) outside Paris and has obviously remained in the same small cushy bubble all his - very short - life, stepping directly from the benches of his posh school to those of the French government. The most hardship he's suffered in his life is probably when his mummy grounded him for not doing his homework...”

Meritocracy seems to have been abandoned in France with a similar tale being told in many other Western countries recently. Nepotism and/or Corporatism have regained their hold after meritocracy managed to get a brief turn. No longer do you need any experience in the real world to run a country. All it takes is a few connections and you’ll jump the queue.

People sticking up for Attal point out that Napoleon became Emperor at 34 but Bertrand reminds them that “by that time he'd defeated half of Europe and the Ottoman empire in Egypt on the battlefield... The biggest achievement Attal can claim is he replied with well formed sentences to journalists' questions...”

Let’s go back to my original question though- ‘But how does a 34 year old become Prime Minister out of the blue?’ Because there is one achievement that is always missed off his CV.

In 2020, Attal graduated as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum. He was one of 114 other individuals “joining a community of people dedicated to changing the world for the better”. The question is, is this better world better for us or for them?

Other Young Global Leaders from 2020 included:

• Megan Rapinoe - As co-captain of the US women's soccer team, Rapinoe lifted the 2019 FIFA World Cup. Off the field, she advocates for gender equality, including equal pay in her sport, and speaks out on diversity and inclusion;

• Jesús Cepeda - Chief Executive Officer of OneSmart City, a company that uses blockchain and artificial intelligence to help city authorities provide digital services. Cepeda hopes the technology will create greener cities and stronger institutions in line with the UN goals on sustainable development;

• Alicia Garza - A co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Garza is a US civil rights activist and editorial writer influential on issues of health, student rights, rights for domestic workers, and campaigns against police brutality, racism, and violence against gender non-conforming people of colour. She directs special projects at the National Domestic Workers Alliance; and

• Sanna Marin - Marin held her first political post at the age of 27. In just three months as prime minister, her government has reformed paid parental leave, giving both parents a total of 14 months.

Once again Klaus Schwab has ‘penetrated the cabinets’.

From Germany’s Merkel, Russia’s Putin, Canada’s Trudeau to Britain’s Sunak, all these leaders were once Young Leaders at the World Economic Forum.

French media is speculating that Attal could run as contender in the 2027 presidential elections as Macron is ineligible to run for a third term. I wouldn’t want to bet against him!

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Attal