BRIEF: French prime minister Gabriel Attal visits Quebec City

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the National Assembly on April 11 as part of a multi-day visit to Canada. Attal met with Premier François Legault (above) and with representatives of all parties, and gave an address in the Salon Bleu, the first French prime minister to do so since 1984. “As a French person, I find that speaking to you is more than speaking to cousins; it’s more like speaking to brothers and sisters, separated by an ocean but united by common values,” he said. He emphasized the shared commitment of Quebec and France to state secularism and to the protection and promotion of the French language in an increasingly globalized, anglicized world. (RP-LJI)

PHOTO (by Cassandra Kerwin)

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is welcomed to the National Assembly by National Assembly president Nathalie Roy on April 11. Attal, 35, who was appointed prime minister in president Emmanuel Macron’s government in January, is the youngest person to hold that office. Attal’s trip to Canada was his first international trip since his appointment. (RP-LJI)