‘Jupiterian’ French President Emmanuel Macron is less popular than ever before with the general public, polling has revealed.
The general French public no longer like President Emmanuel Macron, polling has revealed, with nearly three-quarters of French having a bad opinion of the country’s head of state.
Such a figure represents an all-time low for the Jupitarian leader, with his poor handling of the country’s pension reforms eclipsing the anger seen during the Yellow Vest protests as well as France’s COVID passport phase.
According to figures obtained for the RTL broadcaster, only around 26 per cent now have a favourable view of Macron, a significant drop on the 46 per cent who held such a position this time last year.
Meanwhile, a massive 41 per cent of the country’s population have a “very bad” opinion of the President, with a further 32 per cent of people describing themselves as having a “rather bad” view of the neoliberal leader.
Perhaps the worst statistic for Macron is that 63 per cent of those in the country want the ongoing protests against the country’s government — many of which devolve into riots — to continue, suggesting that France’s commander-in-chief will be forced to deal with on-and-off strikes and public unrest for some time longer.
While Macron has been in tough spots before, Friday’s figures betray a level of unsteadiness within the Macron administration that has not been seen before, with the government’s main political rival, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, seeing their support surge in the polls as disorder creeps into the country.
By contrast, the President is being met with significant protests wherever he goes, with police now resorting to confiscating saucepans from possible protesters for fear they will use them to noisily disrupt public appearances of the French leader.
So far, Macron does not appear to be looking at an early election, with most respondents to the RTL survey expecting his Presidency to survive the crisis.
None of this is taking into account the head-of-state’s big mouth however, with Macron having a habit of enraging members of the general public seemingly without reason when asked about challenges facing him.
Having previously declared he wanted to “piss off” the unvaccinated by preventing them from availing of public facilities during COVID, Macron has more recently mocked those protesting him, claiming they lacked legitimacy while mocking their attempts to disrupt his stately visits to parts of France this month.
This approach has won him no favours within his own government, with some members of his inner circle going rogue and hosting negotiations with opponents in a desperate attempt to reduce tensions.
None of these unsanctioned peace missions have so far succeeded however, with the current administration remaining at odds with the French public.