French PM beats Macron in popularity by four points: Poll

By Al-Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Aug 2022 19:24

41% of respondents approve of French PM Elisabeth Borne's professional performance compared to Macron's approval rating of 37%.

Polls reveal that French PM more popular than Macron

The approval rating of French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has exceeded President Emmanuel Macron's by 4 percentage points, according to a poll conducted by the IFOP research group for the French magazine Le Journal du Dimanche and published on Sunday.

The poll found that 41% of respondents approved of Borne's professional performance. The senior official has been gaining popularity among young people, small entrepreneurs, and supporters of France's center-right The Republicans party.

Meanwhile, Macron's approval rating reached 37% in August as 63% of respondents said they were not satisfied with how he performed as President, and 75% of those polled were not pleased with measures he applied in the security sector, the survey showed.

In July, a poll by Elabe showed that almost one in two French citizens disapproved of Macron's professional performance and only 12% approved it.

The re-election of Emmanuel Macron in April marked a new stage in the history of French politics.

In the second round, taking into account abstentions and blank or invalid ballots, the ‘Jupitarian President’ won the votes of only 38.5% of registered voters.

Macron's Ensemble (Together) coalition had won the most seats in the National Assembly poll but fell dozens of seats short of retaining the parliamentary majority it had had for the previous five years.

Surges on the left and far-right undermined Macron's deputies, who had consistently supported the President's policies over the previous five years. Turnout was low, with the abstention rate recorded at a 53.77% high.

Marine Le Pen was clearly defeated but received 2.7 million more votes than in 2017.

During the French legislative elections held on 12 and 19 June to elect the 577 members of the 16th National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic, Le Pen's far-right party achieved its best-ever parliamentary victory, becoming the strongest single opposition party with 89 seats, up from eight in the previous house.

A confident Le Pen claimed that her party would demand to chair the National Assembly's vital finance commission, as is normal for the main opposition party.

Borne was thus in a situation of vulnerability as Macron was facing a big cabinet reshuffle as a result of the resignations of several of his closest allies.

His health and environment ministers were beaten and had no choice but to resign, as did the house speaker and the head of Macron's parliament group.

Macron's April presidential election triumph, in which he defeated Le Pen and became the first French president to win a second term in nearly two decades, was harmed by the outcome.