Gabriel Attal: New French Prime Minister an Orthodox Christian with Greek roots

The new Prime Minister of France, Gabriel Attal, is an Orthodox Christian and has Greek roots on his mother’s side. The 34-year-old politician’s mother, Marie de Couriss, is of Greek-Russian descent from Odessa. Although Attal is a baptised Orthodox Christian, he has faced anti-Semitism because of his Jewish father’s name.

The 34-year-old politician, appointed yesterday as prime minister in place of Elisabeth Borne, is the son of lawyer and film producer Yves Attal and Marie de Couriss, who had previously worked in a film production company.

Gabriel Attal’s father, who passed away in 2015, was a French-Tunisian Jew, while his mother has Greek-Russian roots from Odessa, as stated in the politician’s biography on the French Wikipedia page.

Having served previously as the Minister of Education, Attal emerged yesterday as the youngest Prime Minister in France under the Fifth Republic. His identification with his mother’s religion is evident in his full name, ‘Gabriel Attal de Couriss’.

Despite being Orthodox, Attal openly addressed encountering instances of anti-Semitism due to his father’s name. His father had warned him about such challenges before his passing.

Source: protothema.gr / orthodoxtimes.com