An overwhelming majority of French citizens do not trust President Macron to preserve law and order in the country, a new poll has found.
The results of the CSA survey conducted for CNEWS come shortly after the French president promised to restore order in the country following weeks of mass rioting sparked by the fatal shooting of an uncooperative teenager by police following a traffic stop.
“The first lesson I draw from this is order, order, order,” Macron told journalists from TF1 and France 2 during a recent taped interview while on a diplomatic tour of New Caledonia.
The pledge, however, does not appear to have resonated with the French public, 70 percent of whom have little faith in his ability to turn things around.
The distrust in the French president is largely consistent when broken down by gender, with both men and women equally dubious of Macron’s leadership.
A majority across every age group of French adults lack confidence in Macron. The most skeptical demographic by age can be found in those aged 25-49. Some 78 percent of 35- to 49-year-olds do not trust Macron to guarantee public order, while 76 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds back him.
Additionally, 63 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds and 62 percent of those aged 65 and over no longer support him on law and order.
The least skeptical age group is 18- to 24-year-olds, but a majority of 59 percent still do not trust the French president.
Unsurprising, those on both the right and left of the political spectrum expressed zero confidence in Macron. Some 81 percent of left-wing La France Insoumise supporters answered “no” when asked whether they trust Macron, while 93 percent and 92 percent of voters of the right-wing Reconquête and National Rally parties responded in the same fashion.
Civil unrest has been a staple of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency, dating back to the weekly Gilet Jaunes protests during his first presidential term, followed by the backlash to his undemocratic and controversial pension reform in his second. The most recent riots are the latest in a long line of broken promises to restore order, and President Macron will have a hard time regaining the confidence of an electorate totally disillusioned with his underwhelming regime.
