Gabriel Attal became the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic on Tuesday January 9, at 34 years old. What about across the world?
By joining Matignon at the age of 34, Gabriel Attal broke the youth record for Prime Ministers of the French Fifth Republic, previously held by Laurent Fabius. Has he become, at the same time, the youngest head of government in the world? The answer is yes, according to RTL: currently, all serving Prime Ministers are older than ours. In the past, however, some political figures came to a similar position even earlier.
In January 2020, Sebastian Kurz was appointed Federal Chancellor of Austria at the age of 31. The conservative thus became the youngest head of government in the world. But since then, Kurz has been ousted from power by a motion of no confidence. A scandal over embezzlement of public funds took its toll on his political career.
Before him, Irakli Garibachvili became Prime Minister of Georgia in 2013, also at the age of 31. He left power in 2015, before taking over the head of government in 2021, then aged 38, and still holds office today.
Finally, Finnish Sanna Marin became Prime Minister of her country in 2019 at the age of 34, exactly like Gabriel Attal. The social democrat, however, resigned from her position last September.