Why it's all going wrong for Macron

Four months of civil unrest and the implementation of a hugely unpopular retirement reform have left the French President with drastically low approval ratings.

- Agnes Poirier

ANGER was expressed,” said President Macron in a 13-minute, pre-recorded address to the nation which aired on French television channels last night. An understatement, given the levels of unrest which have swept across France in the past four months. As the President pushed through the retirement reform which will see a rise in the country’s retirement age to 64, violent clashes left demonstrators and riot police alike injured, while the French capital became a cesspit, thanks to four weeks of strikes by binmen (the detritus providing ammunition to rioters who set hundreds of bins alight). If his critics are to be believed, it all comes as a sure sign that the President has lost touch with the people.

Of greater concern, perhaps, is that while Macron’s popularity has fallen to its lowest levels since the Gilets Jaunes insurrection in 2018-19 (he is now enjoying only 28 per cent favourable opinions), support for his nemesis Marine Le Pen is shooting up. And on the international stage, his recent comments have also caused outrage among Western allies.

Last night’s speech was an attempt to move the national conversation forward — it was his way of telling the 62 per cent of French people who said in a recent poll that they supported further protests and strike action against the law that the time had come to turn the page on this chapter.

Many, however, don’t agree. The eight federations of trade unions that have been united on the subject and mobilising hundreds of thousands of demonstrators every fortnight or so in the streets of France since January, are still up in arms. After his speech last night Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT union, said on BFM TV: “I didn’t hear anything concrete that would calm the anger that workers feel.”