Macron’s Popularity Falls to Lowest Since Yellow Vest Protests, Le Pen Leads Race to Replace

French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity has fallen since the Yellow Vest protests, while Marine Le Pen leads the pack of potential successors.

A poll from Ipsos conducted between January 8th and 9th, which surveyed 1,000 representative people of the voting public, found that President Macron’s popularity fell by two points since the start of the year to just 21 per cent.

According to Le Figaro, the poll represents Macron’s lowest level of support since the Yellow Vest protests of 2018, when mass working-class demonstrations broke out in response to the government’s green agenda taxation scheme.

The results are even more bleak for Prime Minister François Bayrou, who was installed in the Hôtel Matignon by Macron in December after the ousting of the short-lived government of Michel Barnier by a censure vote in the National Assembly.

Bayrou was recorded as having just 20 per cent support, the lowest level of popularity of any incoming prime minister of the Macron era, compared to Gabriel Attal at 37 per cent, Michel Barnier at 34 per cent, and Elisabeth Borne at 27 per cent.

Although President Macron has vowed to remain in office until the end of his second and final term at the Élysée Palace in 2027, his administration faces choppy waters in the coming months.

With France’s growing debt crisis, potential EU financial sanctions and a national credit downgrade loom large over Paris. It remains to be seen if the new Bayrou government will be able to come to a compromise on a budget to address the debt.

Given Macron’s disastrous decision to call for snap legislative elections last summer and his deal with the far-left to prevent Marine Le Pen’s National Rally from winning the second round, the parliament was left in an effective three-way split, making passing any legislation difficult.

Macron is constitutionally prohibited from calling fresh legislative elections until July. While he could try to limp on until then, international and internal pressure could force his hand before then to resign.

Le Pen, who predicted Macron would resign early, leads the pack of potential successors at 34 per cent. She is followed by her deputy, rising populist star Jordan Bardella, at 33 per cent.

Neo-liberal former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe stands at 30 per cent, followed by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau at 25 per cent, and Macronist ex-PM Gabriel Attal at 24 per cent.

However, challenges remain for Le Pen, including the two-round voting system designed to prevent outside parties from taking power, as well as a trial over alleged misuse of EU funds, which threatens to bar her from running for national office for five years.

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