Macron’s popularity sinks to lowest since 2019
French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity rating has fallen to a record low since 2019 amid an unpopular pension reform. The survey by Ifop for Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper shows that 28 percent of those polled are satisfied with Macron’s performance, RIA Novosti reports.
The fall in popularity of the President of France is due to the fact that PM Elisabeth Borne and the French government used Article 49.3 of the French constitution to pass a bill to raise the retirement age in the country from 62 to 64 years without a vote in parliament. As a result, the pension reform was adopted without the approval of the lower house. The authorities will begin to raise the retirement age in the country by three months a year from September 1 this year.
The pension reform has sparked a wave of protests in France. In two months, eight nationwide strikes have already taken place in the country, against the backdrop of which the trade unions held hundreds of demonstrations. Most of them gathered more than a million participants across France. Protests were accompanied by riots and clashes between police and protesters.
70 percent of the French don’t approve of Macron’s actions and 67 percent don’t approve of the actions of PM Elisabeth Borne.
