As strikes and protests grow across France, a new survey has revealed that six in ten voters are unhappy with globalist president Emmanuel Macron.
Out of 1,200 people polled between April 12 and April 16 in France, some 58 per cent declared they were either ‘quite unhappy’ or ‘very unhappy’ with the pro-Brussels leader, who recently spoke of a need to kill populism in Europe.
Almost a year after his election as president, the Ifop-Fiducial poll, carried out for Paris Match, Sud Radio, and CNEWS found that 57 per cent of respondents said the 40-year-old leader was fulfilling commitments made on the campaign trail.
While Macron’s actions on the international stage have won approval from voters, 63 per cent of whom said the president has improved France’s image abroad, only 27 per cent said they back his policy of increasing taxes for pensioners, and just 18 per cent agreed he was improving healthcare.
The speed limit reduction on two-lane highways to 80km/h (50mph) — a move blasted as a cash grab by motoring groups — was also unpopular, attracting support from only 25 per cent of respondents.
While Macron announced he would refuse to tolerate “authoritarianism” in the EU earlier this week, in a speech asserting that Brussels must force liberalism on nations across the bloc, 73 per cent of Frenchmen responding to the Ifop-Fiducial poll described their president as authoritarian.
Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he had urged MEPs to stand up for democracy. But 65 per cent of French voters believe that France is a less democratic place than it was a year ago when the former Rothschild investment banker came to power, according to a separate poll.
Published Wednesday, the BVA survey for L’Obs magazine found that 30 per cent of respondents think France has changed for the worse since his election compared to 21 per cent believing it has changed for the better, while 49 per cent said they feel the country is much the same.
The poll results came against the backdrop of increasing protests and strikes, with the president facing pressure from a range of disparate groups including train drivers, public sector workers, and students, the actions of which have been causing disruption across France.