From the outside looking in, French president Emmanuel Macron seems like a solid deal. He’s charming, intelligent and knows how to engage with an audience. He was elected on a somewhat middle-ground platform, supporting no exceptionally polarized policies. Yet, now especially, Macron’s name is not often met with an outpour of positivity in France. His popularity is at a record low, with only 28% of voters satisfied with his performance in September. Strikes and demonstrations against him and his policies are commonplace. Why is it that the seemingly sound President Macron has acquired such a bitter reputation these past few months? What has he done to anger the French so much?
Macron’s economic policy is the predominant source of this malcontent. For instance, he has proposed and initiated major reforms for public services, like France’s national railway company, SNCF. SNCF employees enjoy major (arguably excessive) retirement benefits that cost the government quite a lot of money. Macron’s plans to cutback those benefits have resulted in massive railway strikes that have lasted months on end. It’s reforms like these that have caused much of the controversy surrounding Macron. He argues that the government must take these types of measures because it cannot continue spending like it has in the past. And, the special status that railway workers and many other public service workers experience in France is extraordinary in comparison to other nations.
Macron’s reforms on higher education have also stirred the pot. He proposed to strengthen universities’ lenient selection processes, which enraged young people in France. Currently, any student can attend a public university, no matter their academic record. Macron plans for Universities to start considering students’ marks in their last years of school. He believes this will help to improve the county’s university system, which many consider disorganized and chaotic. However, because admissions have always worked this way in France, citizens are averse to the change. Students are frequently partaking in walkouts and protests that disrupt the academic system even more.
Macron also comes from an affluent background. He attended a prestigious university and was a successful banker before becoming president. This leads many French people to believe he is “a president of the rich.” A vast majority of French citizens believe his tax policies favor the wealthy. His plans to cut back the wealth tax in France greatly influenced this attitude.
Regardless of how the French may feel about President Macron right now, he will be in office for another three and a half years. His reputation has plenty of time to recover. And, it’s possible that some of these controversial reforms may actually benefit France’s economy, though even that may not sway the notoriously stubborn French. For what it’s worth, Macron is doing right on one of his promises, and that’s change.
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French students protest President Macron’s higher education reforms
Caroline Cox 