PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron recently told a class of sixth-grade students in Laval in western France that he he was having a tough time in his job.“Some days are easy,” he said. “Others are not.”
The difficult days have particularly piled up in the last few weeks.
Slumping approval ratings, unplanned cabinet reshuffles, growing skepticism of his planned reforms and his so-called “Jupiterian" approach to government, a term Macron adopted during his campaign to describe his goal of reshaping French society, have taken the shine off the 40-year-old presidency 16 months after he won office.
The French are divided on whether Macron will achieve his ambitious reform plan, which include loosening labor laws, boosting innovation and reducing bureaucracy. But they agree that he will have to reconnect with the people of France if he wants another shot at re-election in 2022.
“He’s young, ambitious and keen on shaking things up in this country,” said retired postal worker Annick De Oliveira, 61. “But I don’t see him as someone who is close to the people. He’s anything but humble.”
Marcon, for example, made an off-the-cuff remark – “Gauls who are resistant to change” –during a visit to Denmark in August, landing him in hot water at home, where his comment was widely deemed arrogant and interpreted as an insult to French identity.
A few days later, Macron’s approval rating plunged to 31 percent, according to French polling firm Ifop, making him more unpopular than his one-term predecessor Francois Hollande at the same point in office.
Those ratings also reflected dismay among citizens over a scandal involving one of his closest security officers, who was filmed while assaulting demonstrators during a May Day rally in Paris.
The embarrassment diverted attention from a wave of economic reforms he proposed after France’s traditional summer break in August.
Macron also had to deal with an unexpected cabinet reshuffle in late August after the dramatic exit of Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot, who resigned during a live radio interview without informing Macron first.
Hulot, a popular politician and green activist, said he was frustrated by the "small steps" the government was taking to deal with climate change. "This subject is always relegated to the bottom of the list of priorities,” he said in the interview.
The departure of Hulot was widely regarded as a major blow to Macron, who has tried to portray himself as a moderate who wants to both reform France’s economy but also address climate change.
A week later, Sports Minister Laura Flessel said she was resigning from the government for "personal reasons.” Macron replaced here with former backstroke swimming champion Roxana Maracineanu.
At first, voters backed Macron’s pro-business reform plan, expecting it to boost growth and jobs.
Voters largely sided with Macron when he announced controversial cuts and reforms to indebted railway operator SNCF, which sparked months of strikes, according to polls. They were finally approved in June.
Economic growth, however, has been more sluggish than Macron hoped in recent months, however, particularly among lower-income families, sparking criticism that Macron’s policies favored big business and the wealthy.
An Odoxa-Dentsu Consulting poll in Le Figaro newspaper showed that three-quarters of French people perceived the former investment banker as “the president of the rich” just a year into office.
Macron’s main problem is that his reforms don’t appear yet to have tangible effects on people’s everyday lives. Many voters fear his changes will end up hitting their pensions, their jobs and their purchasing power.
“The French are critical because the reforms keep accumulating without a corresponding improvement in the quality of life,” said Philippe Waechter, director of economic research at Ostrum Asset Management in Paris. “They don’t understand how reforms will change their life for the better.”
Businesses are also bridling under his reforms.
A planned reform of the revenue tax, which will mandate pay-as-you-earn monthly deductions for employees from 2019 in a bid to simplify tax collection, has reportedly run into technical troubles amid concerns that many French companies are not ready to implement it. Stories of employees paying workers’ taxes twice or paying for the wrong people have also surfaced.
If Gauls don’t like change, they’ll have plenty of reasons to dislike the new tax system even if it works, potentially sending Macron’s popularity ratings even lower.
“Will the reform create the conditions to improve everyone’s situation after the initial psychological shock the French will experience at the sight of their pay slip in January?” Waechter asked. “Will everyone see an improvement in their life quality, or will they find a reason to be critical?”
Photo: French President Emmanuel Macron meeting workers during visit in Loire-Atlantique and Morbihan. Credit: Courtesy of the French government, 6/1/17
