Following his appointment as Prime Minister succeeding Elisabeth Borne who resigned this week as part of a government revamp, PM Gabriel Attal made several appointments to key government posts on Thursday, including his partner Stéphane Séjourné, who replaces Catherine Colonna as Foreign Minister, and French-Moroccan citizen Rachida Dati named Minister of Culture.
Dati, 58, a member of the right-wing “Les Republicains” (LR) party, served as the former Minister of Justice in the Sarkozy government some 17 years ago. Now back in the government, she is said to be “deeply attached to her country of origin” and a staunch supporter of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Moroccan Sahara, a position she voiced in May, 2023, during a visit to Morocco with the President of the LR, Éric Ciotti. Dati also defended Morocco after the September 2023 earthquake when the kingdom came under sharp criticism in the media for supposedly “rejecting” France’s offer of emergency assistance.
With his appointment at age 38, Séjourné, the new leader of “quai d’Orsay” becomes the youngest French Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Fifth Republic.
A Member of the European Parliament since July 2019, he was appointed chairman of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament on October 19, 2021, and was tipped to top the list of Macron’s party for the next European elections.
Séjourné was also alleged to be among those behind the efforts at the European Parliament to implicate Morocco in the “Pegasus” spyware allegations.
Several ministers have retained their positions under the government shakedown. Among those are Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy; Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior; Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces; and Éric Dupond-Moretti Minister of Justice.