French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity ratings have fallen to a record low since 2019 amid an unpopular pension reform, with only 28% of the population supporting him, according to an Ifop poll for the Journal du Dimanche.
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“Emmanuel Macron’s popularity rating plummeted to 28% in March, the lowest level since early 2019, when the yellow vest crisis ended,” the survey said.
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It is noted that the fall in the president’s popularity is due to the fact that Prime Minister Elisabeth Born and the French government used Article 49.3 of the French constitution to pass a bill to raise the country’s retirement age 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 raising the country’s retirement age by three months a year from September 1, 2023. Thus, by 2030 it will reach 64 years instead of the current 62.
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The reform caused a wave of protests in French society. In two months, eight nationwide strikes have already taken place in France, against which the trade unions held hundreds of demonstrations. Most of them gathered more than a million participants across the country. Protests were accompanied by pogroms and clashes between law enforcement officers and protesters.
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According to a poll conducted from March 9 to 16, 70% of French people disapprove of Macron’s actions. It is noted that since his re-election in May last year, the president’s rating has fallen by 13 points, but has not yet reached a record low in December 2018, when only 23% of the population supported the president against the backdrop of yellow vest protests.
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As for Elizabeth Born, 29% of the French continue to support her, 67% speak disapprovingly about the actions of the head of government. For Bourne, this is the lowest figure since she took over as prime minister.
The survey was conducted online among 1928 people over 18 years old, representing different segments of the French population, the margin of error is from 1 to 2.3 points.
