SHARE
COPY LINK

EMMANUEL MACRON

Free fall: Macron’s popularity at record low

The popularity of French President Emmanuel Macron has hit its lowest level since the start of his term, according to a major tracker poll published on Sunday, with just 29 percent of respondents satisfied with his leadership.

Free fall: Macron's popularity at record low
Photo: AFP

The poll by research group Ifop and published in the Journal du Dimanche showed an overall fall of five points in September compared with August, reflecting the 40-year-old's battle with a series of domestic and foreign setbacks.

The results of the widely watched Ifop poll are broadly in line with other surveys that have shown the approval ratings of the centrist falling sharply following a scandal involving a security aide in July.

A separate poll by the Kantar Sofres Onepoint group published on September 17th showed that only 19 percent of French people had a positive view of Macron's record, while another survey on September 11th showed only 29 percent thought he was a “good president.”

The results reinforce a longer-term trend of French voters turning quickly on their presidents soon after their election — something suffered by Macron's predecessors Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

But many analysts also believe Macron has made a series of political errors, including failing to address the scandals over the summer quickly enough and repeatedly creating negative headlines with harsh or condescending remarks.

His leadership style was again questioned last week when he told an unemployed gardener that he should look for a job in a restaurant or on a building site and implied he was not searching hard enough.

Macron's biggest challenge remains the economy, however, with his pro-business reforms failing so far to produce a significant fall in unemployment or a major uptick in growth.

His government will unveil its draft budget for 2019 on Monday, which is set to see fresh efforts to rein in France's chronic overspending via cuts to the public sector payroll and caps on pensions.

The survey by Ifop published on Sunday was conducted between September
14th-22nd on 1,964 people.

Macron's approval rating of 29 percent includes 3.0 percent of people who declared themselves “very satisfied” and 26 percent who said they were “mostly satisfied.”

Hollande had an inferior rating of 23 percent at the same time of his term and Sarkozy had a rating of 34 percent.

READ ALSO: Macron's stinging attack on Brexiteer 'liars' goes down well with remainers

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

EMMANUEL MACRON

Macron to make live TV broadcast to France

French president Emmanuel Macron will make a live TV broadcast to the nation about the war in Ukraine.

Macron to make live TV broadcast to France

Macron will be on TV on Wednesday at 8pm, the Elysée confirmed earlier on Wednesday.

Macron also tweeted the announcement, saying that his speech will be on the subject of the war in Ukraine.

His office added that the president’s speech “will not touch on other matters” – Macron has only until Friday to confirm whether or not he is running for re-election.

It is widely considered to be extremely unlikely that he would not stand in the April elections, but all candidates have until Friday, March 4th, to make their declaration.

Macron’s team had previously announced a rally in Marseille on Saturday, March 5th, which was expected to be the first official campaign event, but on Tuesday this was cancelled because of the ongoing international crisis.

Macron was at the forefront of international efforts to find a diplomatic resolution to the crisis, and since Russia invaded Ukraine he has remained in close contact with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and has also spoken – at the request of Zelensky – to Russian premier Vladimir Putin.

 
The Local will be following Macron’s speech live from 8pm HERE.
SHOW COMMENTS