The ancestors of the new Prime Minister of France, Gabriel Attal, who was appointed to the post recently, lived in Odesa. The father of the new head of the French government, Yves Attal, was from a Jewish family that had moved to France from Tunis. At the same time, Attal’s mother, Marie de Courisse, comes from a family of Russian White Guard emigrants of Greek origin. They are known to have resided in Odesa.
One of her grandfathers, Alexandre de Courisse, was a musician and made a living as a tutor. The other was Amédée de la Forest-Divonne, a real French count.
Attal’s mother raised him in the Orthodox faith. In a 2019 interview with Libération, cited by The Guardian, Attal recounted words his father once said to him.
God died in Auschwitz. You may be Orthodox, but you will feel Jewish all your life because you will suffer anti-Semitism because of your name, – Attal quoted his father.
It is known that 34-year-old Attal is the youngest head of government in the history of France. At the same time, he is the first openly LGBT representative in the post.
