The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has given a young, prize-winning writer the job of promoting the French language and culture, reports The Guardian.
Leïla Slimani was made the president’s personal representative and given a wide remit as Francophone affairs minister after a meeting at the Élysée Palace on Monday.
A presidential spokesperson said Slimani was chosen because she “represents the open face of Francophonie [being French-speaking] to a multicultural world”, and because she was “part of a new generation that the president wants to highlight”.
Macron likes to be seen as a man of letters and has admired Slimani’s books. He asked to meet her during his presidential campaign, and Slimani publicly supported him before the second-round run-off vote in May, in which Macron went head to head with the Front National leader Marine Le Pen.
French media later reported that Macron had offered Slimani the job of culture minister but she had turned it down. However, she accompanied Macron to meet Mohammed VI, the king of Morocco, in June.
The Morocco-born author was largely unheard of before last November, when she won the prestigious Prix Goncourt literary award for her second novel, Chanson Douse (Lullaby).