MACRON’S POPULARITY PLUMMETS

PARIS The popularity of President Emmanuel Macron has slumped by 10 points just two months after the youthful centrist took power — the biggest decline for a new president since 1995 — with voters unhappy about a range of his planned reforms.

The 39-year-old former banker got off to a flying start, winning praise and admiration at home and abroad, but the shine has started to come off his fledgling administration.

The number of French people satisfied with his performance has fallen to 54 per cent, down 10 percentage points from June, said the Ifop poll for the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

It added that the last time a newly elected president had lost ground in that way was Jacques Chirac in 1995. The Ifop poll echoed a similar finding in a recent BVA poll.

Macron has been involved in a bitter dispute over budget cuts with Pierre de Villiers, the head of the armed forces, which ended with the resignation on Wednesday of the much-respected five-star general.

The left-wing Liberation newspaper said the president’s “little authoritarian fit” could be a sign he was drunk on power and said it was time for him “to grow up a bit.”