The Fall of Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron overwhelmingly won the French presidential election in May, taking 66% of the vote. It was not a close election—Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate, only garnered 34% of the vote. Macron and his fledgling party, En Marche!, were able to easily form a majority government. At 39, he is the youngest president that France has ever seen.
It is now late October, and the six-month check-in is not looking good for Mr. Macron. Macron has become extremely unpopular in the months following the election, and his policies are no longer in line with the progressive values of France, and for that matter, Europe.
Despite his resounding victory, Macron has managed to lose his popularity very quickly. By August, just four months after the election, Macron’s approval rating had fallen to a paltry 37%. At last count, this is an even lower approval rating than that of President Trump, which currently stands at 38%. When you have a lower popularity rating than Trump, a man who in the wake of neo-nazi attacks in Charlottesville, claimed that there were “very fine people on both sides,” something is clearly very, very wrong. Macron’s government has also lost popularity, at 52% disapproval. This is the fastest slide in popularity for any French president—ever.
This all begs the question, why? What has Macron done to constitute this massive shift in public opinion? Well, Macron has managed to alienate most of his voting base. Macron’s initial drop can be seen in his slow shift towards authoritarianism. After the 2015 terrorist attacks, France enacted several temporary actions as part of a state of emergency. These actions, include, among other things, the power to conduct raids without a warrant, shut down protests (no legal cause necessary), enact curfews, and place people under house arrest. Under Macron, “temporary” appears to be off the table—these are likely to become law. This, coupled with Macron’s tendency to rarely appear in public or speak to media outlets, furthers his increasingly clear image as an authoritarian.
More recently, Macron has proposed a series of sharp, unpopular budget cuts to the public sector. Cutting everything from the healthcare system to education to Air Traffic Control, these cuts would potentially remove 120,000 jobs. Macron also gutted labor regulations in France, which angered many labor groups and unions.
After protests by labor activists and workers against these actions, Macron called the protesters ‘slackers’ and told them to go work somewhere else. The backlash against this comment led the second largest union in France, CGT, to condemn Macron’s words as ‘disrespectful’ and ‘insulting.’ Some have even gone so far as to accuse the president of ‘class contempt.’ Macron has increasingly been seen as not just “pro-business”, but anti-worker as well— a ‘reverse-robin hood.’ This has earned him a reputation for elitism.
Macron, a man trying to appeal to both the left and the right, has managed to alienate both (his budget cuts included cuts to the French military, which angered many on the right wing). What we are seeing in Europe is largely a rejection of centrism. On the good side of this coin, we have leaders like Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, who has promised to revitalize the NHS and just this week gave a speech emphasizing that MPs who engage in sexually abusive behavior should face the fullest extent of the law.
Corbyn is now more popular than Theresa May, the UK’s current Prime Minister. Of course, on the bad side, we have far-right, nationalist candidates, such as Sebastian Kurz of Austria. Populism (and faux-populism, visible in Trump and Kurz) are becoming popular. With hope and effort, the faux-populists will be revealed and true progressive populists like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Jeremy Corbyn will prevail.
Unfortunately, in an attempt to achieve centrism, Mr. Macron’s actions have left his voters angry and disappointed. Undoubtedly, Emmanuel Macron is still better than Le Pen—but that isn’t saying much.
