Gabriel Attal has been named France's next prime minister, as Emmanuel Macron aims to revive his presidency with a new government.

* At 34, he is the youngest PM in modern French history, outranking even Socialist Laurent Fabius who was 37 when he was appointed by François Mitterrand in 1984.

* Mr Attal replaces Élisabeth Borne, who resigned after 20 months in office.

* Throughout that time she struggled with a lack of a majority in parliament.

* Gabriel Attal, who is currently education minister, certainly makes an eye-catching appointment.

* He will now have the task of leading the French government into important European Parliament elections in June.

* His rise has been rapid. Ten years ago he was an obscure adviser in the health ministry, and a card-carrying member of the Socialists.

* He will also be the first openly gay occupant of Hôtel Matignon. He has a civil partnership with another Macron whizz-kid, the MEP Stéphane Sejourné.

* Welcoming him to his new role, President Macron wrote on social media: "I know I can count on your energy and your commitment to implement the project of revitalisation and regeneration that I announced."

* "France will never rhyme with decline, France rhymes with transformation, France rhymes with audacity," Mr Attal declared outside his new residence.

* But given the difficulties of the president's second term - and the growing challenge from the nationalist right - is "eye-catching" alone going to cut it?

* Handsome, youthful, charming, popular, cogent, Mr Attal certainly comes to office trailing clouds of glory - much, let it be said, like his mentor and role-model the president himself.

* But like many go-getters of his generation, he was inspired by Emmanuel Macron's idea of breaking apart the old left-right divide and re-writing the codes of French politics.

* In the wake of Macron's 2017 election, Mr Attal became a member of parliament, and it was there that his brilliance as a debater - easily the best of the neophyte Macronite intake - brought him to the president's attention.

* At 29, he became the youngest ever minister in the Fifth Republic with a junior post at education; from 2020 he was government spokesman and his face began to register with the voters; after President Macron's re-election, he was briefly budget minister and then took over at education last July.

* It was in this post that Mr Attal confirmed to the president that he has what it takes, acting with no-nonsense determination to end September's row over Muslim abaya robes by simply banning them in schools.

* He led a campaign against bullying - he himself was a victim, he says - at the elite École alsacienne in Paris, and took on the education establishment with his proposal to experiment with school uniform..

Source  : BBC