Isolated and unpopular, Macron marks one year since re-election

Paris – Isolated at home and alienating allies abroad, French President Emmanuel Macron marks one year since his re-election on Monday pursued by pot-bashing protesters and desperate for new ideas to re-launch his second term.

Although he has pushed through his cherished pension reform after three months of protests and strikes, the move has sapped his image and turned his often-simmering country into a hotbed of anger. 

In a national address last week, Macron promised to develop a fresh agenda before the summer holidays, saying “we have 100 days in front of us of calming down, of unity, of ambition and action in the service of France.” 

Two days later, reprising a trick from his first term, he set off to meet angry voters face-to-face, or “close enough to get a slap”, as one aide put it.

During two visits to rural France, he was booed and heckled. People banged saucepans — an age-old French protest tradition — wherever he walked. He parried some complaints, but took many others on the chin.

Aides hoped voters would at least credit him with personal courage and that the public humbling might release some of the pent-up frustration over the pension changes, which were opposed by two-thirds of the country.

Forcing people to retire two years later at 64 “was not a pleasure for anyone,” Macron told one woman.

“The job of the president is not to be loved, nor to not be loved. It’s to try to do the best for the country and to act,” he said in the village of Selestat in eastern Alsace.

– ‘We’re very unpopular’ – 

If the aim was to turn the page on pensions, a poll published on Thursday by Odoxa-Backbone Consulting made for grim reading for the head of state. 

Fifty-nine percent of people thought it was wrong to want to move on from the issue of pensions, and only 22 percent of people had been convinced by Macron’s televised speech on Monday evening. 

His overall popularity ratings are hovering at near record lows, with around one in four voters having a positive view of him — similar to the level of late 2018 when a violent revolt against his policies by “Yellow Vest” protesters began.

A shock poll on April 5 even showed that far-right leader Marine Le Pen would beat Macron if last year’s presidential election were held again.

“We’re very unpopular. The president is very, very unpopular. There’s a lot of animosity towards him,” a ruling party MP told AFP recently on condition of anonymity. “I think we’re going to remain in a profoundly unstable state until 2027.”

The problem for the head of state as he seeks to bounce back is that his margin for manoeuvre is limited.

He lost his parliamentary majority in elections last June and his own campaign for a second term was widely described as lacklustre.

“Given the manifesto we had in 2022, there aren’t many things to develop,” a former ruling party MP lamented to AFP. “Pensions were pretty much the only thing we sold to people.” 

– ‘Backfire’ – 

Abroad too, Macron has made few new friends since becoming the first French president in 20 years to win a second term in April last year.

Already famed for his provocative statements, he revived the habit on April 8 as he returned from a trip to China where he spent hours in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Europe should not be a “follower” of the United States, Macron said, adding that the EU should not get caught up in “crises that aren’t ours”, referring to the possibility of a conflict between China and the United States over Taiwan.  

Distancing himself from Washington at a time when the United States is delivering the bulk of military aid to Ukraine caused instant unease across Europe, particularly in Baltic and eastern European states such as Poland. 

Pitching the idea of an independent Europe “when the US is basically saving your skin was always going to backfire”, Joseph de Weck, an author of a biography of Macron, told AFP.

“Macron is good on strategy and long-term thinking. He’s often terrible on tactics and communications,” he added.

Germany’s defence minister called the Taiwan comments “unfortunate”, another indication of the rocky Franco-German relationship that has dismayed the French leader.

Foreign policy has traditionally been an area where French presidents, when stymied at home, have invested their energy.

De Weck sees Macron as unlikely to make any major domestic policy changes.

“The protests will die down, I’m pretty sure of that,” he said. “But reviving the confidence of the French people looks very unlikely. We’ll have a lot of stagnation in politics the next few years.”