French prime minister seeks to step out from Macron's shadow in the upcoming early election

abcnews.go.com:

France’s prime minister hopes to emerge from the campaign for the early legislative election not only still holding the job that President Emmanuel Macron gave him less than six months ago but also as more of his own person

LE PECQ, France — Thrust into an early election sprung by his boss, France’s prime minister hopes to emerge from the campaign not only still holding the job that President Emmanuel Macron gave him less than six months ago but also as more of his own person.

The 35-year-old Gabriel Attal became France's youngest-ever prime minister when Macron appointed him in January.

But he now risks being dethroned by the even younger 28-year-old Jordan Bardella. The president of the far-right National Rally hopes the legislative election will mark a watershed in his party's gradual but unrelenting decades-long climb from the fringes of French politics to now being on the threshold of power.

For Attal, the crisis represented by the possibility that France could elect its first far-right government since its Nazi occupation in World War II could also be something of an opportunity.

If Attal can confound pollsters' expectations and somehow pull off a majority for Macron's centrist bloc in the June 30 and July 7 two-round election, not only will he earn brownie points from the French president, but he'll also be in a stronger position to argue that he has the country's ear and support.

“Of course there will be a before and an after,” Attal said Thursday. “On Jan. 9th, the president nominated me. On June 30th, I'd like the French to choose me.”

An arresting black-and-white photo taken by Macron's official photographer on June 9 — the day that the president shocked France and many of his associates by dissolving