FRANCE 24 English: Can French president reverse plummeting popularity?

Our deputy director Martin Michelot was a guest of the France 24 studio debating Emmanuel Macron's presidency.

Our deputy director Martin Michelot was a guest of the France 24 English studio where he debated the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. 

To go back to Macron's popularity, the other thing that may also structuraly explain why he maybe unpopular today is the fact that, to an extent, the opposition. It's very hard if you consider yourself a social democrat to identify with the opposition, which is extreme left or the extreme right. So in a way if you place all your hopes in the catch-all party of Emmanuel Macron then yes, the veneer maybe cracking and this is perhaps one of the limits of the political gamble that Macron has been taking, which is really to redefine the politics not on the left versus right spectrum, but on the globalists versus territorialists or globalists versus nationalists which may be coming back to haunt him. I don't think that this is necessarily a function, or a limitation of the Fifth Republic as it exists. It is mostly a function of the way the world functions today and the role of France in the European Union.

If there is one policy on which Emmanuel Macron is still positively viewed by the French population it is the European issues. That is based on premise, that the election will  actually be about European issues and not a mid-term referendum on his presidency, and that unfortunately I believe will be the case.

The full programme is available on the YouTube channel of FRANCE 24 English. 

Martin Michelot
Senior Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: NATO and transatlantic security, European foreign policy and defense, French politics, elections and society, Visegrad Four and Central Europe, EU institutional issues