Attal: “Stopping agricultural duty-free oil is a mistake”
Go to farmers and stop protests
Joined a political party at age 17, ‘young veteran’ for 18 years
More popular than Macron… “Public opinion leader”
“Did we respond well to (farmers’) inconveniences? Obviously not. Did we make a mistake? “It certainly is.”
France’s 35-year-old ‘young blood’ Prime Minister Gabriel Attal spoke as if advising himself when announcing support measures for farmers on the 1st (local time). He said that it was clearly the government’s fault that farmers had staged a ‘tractor protest’ for more than two weeks, expressing dissatisfaction with the European Union’s (EU) strengthening of environmental regulations and expansion of imported agricultural products. When he took a low-key stance and withdrew his policy to suspend tax exemption for agricultural diesel and announced support measures worth 150 million euros (about 215.7 billion won), farmers responded by stopping their protests.
Prime Minister Attal, who is attracting attention as the ‘youngest prime minister’ in French history, passed his first test by putting an end to the ‘angry anger’ that arose in his first month in office. Locally, it is evaluated that the ‘young veteran’ with 18 years of political experience has become President Emmanuel Macron’s ‘savior’ by openly acknowledging and communicating with mistakes.
Prime Minister Atal explained his mistakes in detail that day. “This is what I did, and I clearly recognize that I made a mistake,” he said of the measure to suspend diesel tax exemption, which sparked farmer protests. “It was complicated and not fair to small farms.” French business magazine Les Ecos commented, “Prime Minister Attal humbly acknowledged his mistake.” However, he emphasized that he made efforts to communicate, saying, “I have never stopped talking with farmers, and my door has never been closed.”
In fact, Prime Minister Atal rushed to the scene and attempted to talk. On the 26th of last month, he visited a farm in Montastruck de Saly in the southwest and met with farmers. He then appeased angry farmers by making a speech next to a haystack, saying, “I consider agriculture to be more important than anything else,” and “Without our farmers, we are no longer France or a country.”
Rezeko said, “Prime Minister Atal constantly mentions in his speeches that workers should receive more compensation than the unemployed and the demands of teachers.” Because of this, the labor and education circles can feel that Prime Minister Atal is listening to our voices.
Gilles Le Gendre, a member of the ruling Renaissance Party’s House of Representatives, told Britain’s Financial Times (FT), “Prime Minister Attal has a real talent for communication.” Mathieu Gallard, CEO of public opinion research company Ipsos, said in an interview with Radio France Enpo, “He is a person who leads public opinion.”
Prime Minister Atal’s strength is due to the fact that he has already accumulated solid experience as a politician for 18 years. He joined the center-left Socialist Party (PS) in 2006 when he was 17 and wrote speeches for the Francois Hollande government. In 2016, he moved to the new political party ‘Republic Advancing’ (LREM, now Renaissance) led by Macron, who was preparing to run for president at the time, and entered parliament. After Macron came to power, he gained various experiences as a government spokesperson, public accounting minister, and education minister.
There is also considerable public support for Prime Minister Atal, who is called ‘Baby Macron’. According to the results of a Lezeco opinion poll on the 1st, Prime Minister Atal’s trust rating is 32%, which is 7 percentage points higher than President Macron’s trust rating (25%). French daily Le Figaro said of Prime Minister Atal’s recent rise, “The scale and speed (of public support) is surprising and unprecedented.”
Paris =
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.