Macron bubble yet to burst as he leads the polls
TWO weeks after winning France’s most hotly contested presidential election in decades, Emmanuel Macron is riding high in the opinion polls once more.
Sixty-two per cent of voters surveyed by IFOP have said they are satisfied with the centrist leader, just above his Socialist predecessor François Hollande’s 61 per cent rating in May 2012, but below that of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 who stood at 65 per cent.
The approval ratings for Edouard Philippe, Mr Macron’s newly-appointed conservative prime minister, stood at 55 per cent, also around average.
An Elabe poll last Thursday found only 45 per cent of voters trust Macron’s ability to tackle France’s problems, and 36 per cent trusted Mr Philippe to succeed.
Mr Macron returned to Paris this weekend after visiting French troops stationed in Mali – his first trip outside Europe since he took power a week ago. He has vowed that France will step up the fight against Islamist militants in north and west Africa and would work more closely with Germany to help the tinderbox region, whose troubles, he believes, could eventually threaten Europe.
Despite Mr Macron’s comfortable 66-34 per cent victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the 39-yearold former banker still needs to convince many voters that he can improve the country’s social and economic ills.
He formed his first government last week and called upon an array of reformist socialists and conservatives. However, the biggest challenge he faces is to clinch a parliamentary majority for his République en Marche! party in next month’s legislative elections.
An Opinionway/orpi poll last week said the party was on course to win 27 per cent of votes in the first round of the National Assembly election on June 11, beating all other parties. The poll also projects that after the second round on June 18, Macron’s party will have between 280 and 300 of the 535 mainland seats in the lower house, where 289 seats are needed for an absolute majority.
Mr Macron is due to meet Donald Trump later this week at a G7 summit in Italy.