Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – France President Emmanuel Macron is facing a plummetting popularity rate, a recent poll has shown.
As little as 28% of French people are satisfied with the president, the Ifop barometer published by Le Journal du Dimanche has shown.
Meanwhile, 70% of respondents that participated in the poll are dissatisfied with Macron, whose popularity rating dropped by four points in only one month.
Le Journal du Dimanche stressed that Macron has “suffered a substantial drop of 8 points” since December 2022.
The data from the poll carried out between March 9-16, came amid intensive protests against Macron’s policies – particularly the pension reform.
Unions across the country are determined to continue protesting against the pension reforms, which seek to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
The reforms were part of Macron’s re-election campaign last year.
Macron’s government believes that the reforms aim to “prevent the pensions system from falling into deficit and younger people carrying the burden,” Al Jazeera reported.
The reforms caused frustration and resulted in nationwide demonstrations over the past several months.
Over the weekend, French authorities held hundreds of protesters. Authorities also banned gatherings at popular locations in Paris.
Many reports suggested that Macron’s government “will face two confidence votes” as soon as Monday. The confidence vote was triggered amid citizens’ growing frustrations over Macron’s decision to “bypass the legislature in pushing through his unpopular pensioner reform.”
“If a no-confidence motion gets a majority of votes — an unlikely scenario — the pension bill would be nullified and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would have to resign,” Bloomberg reported.
But if there is a majority no-confidence vote, Macron will have to appoint a new government.
In addition to Macron’s controversial reforms, many politicians and academics have criticized the president’s failed diplomacy.
Recently, French television channel TV5 Monde published an article, featuring a series of remarks from politicians and academics who questioned Macron’s diplomacy.
Christian Cambon, President of France-Morocco friendship group in the French senate denounced Macron’s hostile campaigns driven by parties close to Macron within the European Parliament.
Cambon recalled how it has not been long since France-Morocco emerged from the visa policy crisis, and Macron’s party’s initiative is making it increasingly difficult to start anew. Historian and professor at the University of Sorbonne Pierre Vermern said that the tension between France and countries in Africa reflects a “firm warning” against French diplomacy.
“It’s catastrophic since we are in an extraordinary context of successive crises,” Vermeren told TV5 Monde, acknowledging that ties between Paris and countries in North Africa are “in a permanently critical phase.”
