Almost 7 in 10 French citizens believe the re-election of Emmanuel Macron has been detrimental to France, a damning new poll has revealed.
According to a survey conducted by the Elabe Institute for BFM TV, a total of 69 percent of respondents consider Macron’s latest presidential term to have been a “bad thing,” a view which has increased by 14 percentage points from the latest survey of its kind a year ago.
By contrast, just 30 percent of French citizens consider Macron’s second term to be a “good thing,” while 1 percent did not know.
The most popular words to describe the French presidency over the past year have negative connotations. “Disagreement” was the most commonly used by 44 percent of respondents, closely followed by “disappointment” with 42 percent. “Anger” and “hostility” followed with 39 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
On the contrary, positive terms including “respect,” “support,” and “sympathy” were used by 13 percent, 10 percent, and 7 percent of respondents, respectively.
Almost one-quarter of French voters who supported Macron in the first round of the presidential election, and 40 percent of those who voted for him in the run-off against Marine Le Pen, consider his presidency to be “disappointing” to date.
The French president’s second term has been marred in controversy with particular public outrage over his administration’s decision to bypass a parliamentary vote on his hugely unpopular pension reform, which would see the French retirement age gradually increase over the next seven years, eventually rising by two years from 62 to 64.
Macron secured a second term by defeating Le Pen in April last year, securing 58.5 percent of the vote to Le Pen’s 41.5 percent. Another recent survey from Elabe, however, revealed the French president would lose comfortably to Le Pen should there be a re-run of the election today. The survey predicts the National Rally leader would win with 55 percent of the vote versus 45 percent for Macron.
“The blocking vote (against Le Pen) would be much lower,” and her “spectacular” gains would see her “progress in all electoral categories,” Bernard Sananes, head of Elabe, told BFMTV.
