Emmanuel Macron: Only 32% of the French say they are satisfied with the actions of French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a survey conducted by the IFOP public opinion institute commissioned by the Journal.
“This is the end of a long phase of presidential immunity. And now it finds itself in the logic of the heads of state of the Fifth Republic, who are paying so much for unpopular reforms,” IFOP CEO Frederic Daby comments on the publication.
The latest figures mean that Macron’s popularity over pension reform plans has dropped to the lowest level since February 2020, before the COVID-19 crisis, the Journal explains.
The newspaper recalls that similar things happened before him under President Jacques Chirac with the 1995 pension reform and under Nicolas Sarkozy during the 2010 reform. At the same time, Macron lost points in the ranks of his own voters and voters of the center-right Republicans, and he is now “largely unpopular in all categories” of the population.
The President scored three additional points among the senior staff of the French administration and representatives of the liberal professions, receiving 40% of positive feedback, but lost six among employees and three among workers. As for the workers, 78% are not satisfied with the actions of the head of state.
According to Daby, this confirms the “massive structural unpopularity” of the French President.
The number of “very dissatisfied” reached 37%, which has not been since the “yellow vests” protest movement, mainly active in 2018-2019, one of the demands of which was also the rejection of the currently discussed pension reform with an increase in the retirement age up to 64 years old.
The Journal quotes Macron as saying privately in early January: “If you need friends, don’t become president.”
