Cit would almost become a habit. As during his first term, Emmanuel Macron is facing a major social and political crisis at the start of his five-year term. In the fall of 2018, the presidential momentum had indeed broken on the wall of “yellow vests”. Spontaneously born on Facebook to challenge the introduction of a fuel tax, this movement very quickly mutated into something much broader and much more unpredictable, with, as its first demand, the introduction of the citizens’ initiative referendum (RIC). After several months of mobilizations enamelled with violence, Emmanuel Macron’s popularity rating had been deeply shaken: in December 2018, only 23% of French people approved of the president’s action, against 43% in June, according to FIFG.
From now on, in this beginning of the second five-year term, it is the movement of opposition to the reform of the pensions which comes to slow down the reforming desires of the president. If this crisis is also in the process of negatively affecting Emmanuel Macron’s popularity rating – only 28% of French people say they are satisfied with his action, again according to the IFOP –, the power in place initially thought it could deal with it in a much simpler way.
While the movement of “yellow vests” was distinguished by its unpredictability, its absence of designated interlocutors and a desire to question the rules of representative democracy, the current social movement is characterized by a more classic form than that “yellow vests”: trade unions lead the protest front in the street, while opposition political parties do the same in the National Assembly. So many elements that have not prompted the president to be cautious in recent months.
Great Debate in 2019
Yet, in many ways, the social movement is having far worse consequences for those in power than the “yellow vest” movement. Indeed, Emmanuel Macron had been able to get out of this previous crisis thanks to three elements. On the one hand, the president had managed to regain control of the sequence at the beginning of 2019, thanks to the establishment of the great debate, allowing him to renew the dialogue with the French while sticking to his narrative of a politician capable of inventing new political objects and new strategies to move forward. On the other hand, the executive had shown itself to be sensitive to certain demands of the movement, announcing at the end of 2018 several emergency economic measures to relieve the purchasing power of the most modest citizens. Finally, the violence present in the various Saturdays of mobilization had ended up tiring part of the population.
You have 56.59% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.