French presidents have a classic trick when they grow unpopular: disappearing from domestic politics to focus on international matters while the dust settles.
Except in Macron’s case, it’s backfiring.
His agenda has rarely been busier. The past few days were an economic and diplomatic sprint for a president determined to crown France as the leader in European AI – and put himself at the very centre of it all.
Between Saturday and Tuesday alone, Macron crammed dozens of meetings, working lunches, and private receptions with world leaders, noble laureates, investors and tech moguls.
The French two-cheek kiss, the smiles, and the handshakes, overbearing as they were, could not hide the obvious: French people can’t stand Macron anymore.
A new poll has found 67% of respondents have a negative view of Macron, up 7% from the same time last year. A solid 30% gave him an overall grade of zero out of 10. Just 1% are “very satisfied.”
Over half blame him for the current political situation and have not forgiven him for his raucous decision to call for snap elections last summer.
Worse still, France has the lowest trust in politics of any major European country – even beating Italy's Giorgia Meloni.
There are plenty of reasons why.
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