Macron looks to regain his footing as challenges rise

French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a tricky cabinet pick Tuesday as he scrambles to recover from record-low approval ratings while facing growing resistance to a controversial tax payment reform.

The centrist leader is expected to select a replacement for popular environment minister Nicolas Hulot, whose shock resignation last week caught France’s political establishment off guard. Hulot, a TV star who enjoyed the highest ratings of any in Macron’s cabinet, said the president was not moving fast enough on key green pledges such as cutting France’s reliance on nuclear power.

Few names have emerged as his eventual successor, with Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a veteran environmental campaigner and symbol of the May 1968 social revolution, turning down the post Sunday after discussing the matter with Macron over the weekend.

Media reports have suggested Pascal Canfin, the head of WWF France, or Laurence Tubiana, one of the main architects of the landmark 2015 Paris accord on limiting global warming, as potential picks.

Hulot’s departure has also stoked speculation that Macron might be tempted with a more extensive ministerial shake-up ahead of the government’s post-summer seminar on Wednesday.

Macron’s popularity had already taken a hit before the holidays after one of his top security aides was caught on film roughing up protesters while wearing a police helmet during a Paris demonstration.

Critics accused the president and his team of trying to cover up the incident, reinforcing his image as an aloof leader.