Darling of Europe, disaster at home: Emmanuel Macron struggles in polls as voters turn

More than half of French people questioned disprove of the French’s President’s performance, according to the Ipsos Game Changers poll for French daily Le Point.

Of those surveyed, 54 per cent were “dissatisfied” with the 39-year-old’s actions, less than six months after his landslide victory against far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Just one in three French people, 34 per cent, said they were “satisfied “with Mr Macron’s actions as president in the poll published on Wednesday, up two percentage points in one month.   

Mr Macon is in Brussels today for a two day EU summit of the 28 member states.

His action plan to reform Europe has been incorporated into a road map put to leaders tomorrow by European Council President Donald Tusk.

He is fast becoming the darling of Europe, winning over the likes of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as well as Germany’s Angela Merkel for his pro-EU policies.

But it would appear voters are wanting him to focus his efforts at home, with  58 per cent of voters questioned in the Ipsos poll said France was “neither better nor worse off” since Mr Macron was sworn in as president in May. 

And 29 per cent of those interviewed said the country was “worse off” since Mr Macron took power, while just 13 per cent said that France was “better off”. 

The performance of the president’s right-hand man, conservative prime minister Edouard Philippe, is also being judged harshly by the French. 

Forty-nine per cent of those polled said they were “dissatisfied” with his actions as prime minister, while just 33 per cent expressed satisfaction with his performance. 

But despite Mr Macron’s tepid approval ratings and growing public dissent over the government’s radical reform plans, the majority of French people believe that opposition leaders would “not do more for France” if they were to take up the reins of power. 

Only 18 per cent of those polled said that the country would be better off if far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of the Communist-backed La France Insoumise political movement, had been voted into power; while just 17 per cent said that Mrs Le Pen, the head of France’s nationalist Front National party, would do a better job than Mr Macron. 

A total of 957 people aged 18 and over were polled online between October 13 and 14 for the conservative, centre right magazine.