The poll, conducted by pollster Ifop for the conservative weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), showed that 32 percent of French people approve of the young centrist’s actions as president, up two percentage points from the previous survey in June. But his dissatisfaction rating remains high, with some 68 percent of respondents telling pollsters that they are “unhappy” with his actions as president. The Ifop poll also showed that M Macron, 41, is most unpopular among voters who identify with the far-left and the far-right. Only 10 percent of far-left voters and seven percent of far-right voters said they approved of his actions.
The anti-government yellow vest crisis badly dented M Macron’s standing at the end of last year, with his popularity dropping to record lows amid a fierce backlash that started out as an outcry over planned fuel tax hikes.
However, the weekly protests rapidly morphed into a sometimes violent rebellion against the Macron government’s tough economic policies and perceived indifference to the needs of the struggling working class.
The fuel tax hikes that ignited the unrest were dropped in early December and M Macron has since offered up further measures to appease protesters, including wage rises for the poorest workers and tax-free overtime pay.
The number of yellow vest protesters, named for the motorists’ high-visibility jackets they wear, has dwindled to a few hundred over the past weeks from a high of around 300,000 nationwide in November.
But M Macron, who is only just recovering from what is widely considered as the biggest political crisis of his presidency, was dealt another brutal blow last week after his environment minister was forced to quit over a series of reports by the investigative website Mediapart about his high spending on private lobster dinners and costly renovations of his ministerial residence.
François de Rugy, a close Macron ally, said he had handed his resignation because the “effort required to fight the accusations” was undermining his ability to do his job correctly.
M de Rugy has firmly denied the accusations, but the reports have made it difficult for him to continue a series of key reforms, namely the restructuring of the indebted state-owned power company EDF.
The scandal has also reinforced criticism of M Macron’s government as being elitist and out of touch, a core complaint of the yellow vests.
M Macron, a former investment banker and economy minister, won power in 2017 on a promise to clean up the country’s politics and tighten up ethical standards after an election race marred by an embezzlement scandal.
The Ifop poll of 996 people aged 18 and over was conducted online between July 17-18.