President Macron’s approval rating at record low in new French poll
Former PMs Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal and then far-right politicians Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen were highest scoring politicians
The president has seen his approval rating plummet 5% in the last two months
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Approval ratings for French President Emmanuel Macron are the lowest since he became head of the country in 2017, according to a new poll from the statistics group Elabe.
The president received an approval rating of 22%, lower than during the gilets jaunes crisis (when it hovered at 23%). This is down 5% compared to two months ago.
The president’s decision to call snap legislative elections this summer and a sense of decline in public services are among the main reasons cited for the historic low.
Around 72% of French voters ‘do not have confidence’ in the president, with 46% saying they do not have confidence in him ‘at all’ to improve the state of the country.
The graph below shows an overview of Mr Macron’s approval ratings during his presidency.
New prime minister Michel Barnier had an approval rating of 28%.
Read more: Immigration and taxes dominate Prime Minister Barnier’s policy speech
Presidential candidate Edouard Philippe most popular politician
No politicians had an approval rating of over 50% in the survey*.
Former prime minister Edouard Philippe received the highest overall rating with all voters, at 41% (although this was still down two points from previous surveys).
Mr Philippe is the first person to officially declare he is running for president in 2027. Emmanuel Macron cannot run for a third consecutive term.
Read more: Former French PM Edouard Philippe announces presidential candidacy
Following Mr Philippe, the next highest net approval ratings are for another recent prime minister, Gabriel Attal (39%), followed by far-right politicians Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen (36% and 34% respectively).
The highest placing left-wing politician is the Socialist Party’s Raphaël Glucksmann (27%), matched by former president from the party François Hollande.
Mr Hollande’s approval rating fell to around 5% during his tenure, famously improving after details of his affair were made public.
Further ratings, which are broken down including on voter’s political ideologies, can be found in the full Elabe report here.
*Survey carried out on 1,007 French citizens over the age of 18 on October 1 and 2 by Elabe, commissioned by Les Echos.
