Emmanuel Macron’s “popularity ratings” “place him practically at the level of the yellow vests crisis,” said political scientist Bruno Cautrès on Thursday.
“It’s the Macron method, it’s the Macron style and maybe even the Macron person who is very strongly contested”, analyzed Thursday April 20 on franceinfo, Bruno Cautrès, CNRS researcher at the Political Life Research Center (Cevipof) and teacher at Sciences Po, while the Head of State was booed on Wednesday during his trip to Alsace. Emmanuel Macron cannot turn the page on pension reform. Opposition on the ground remains strong. Behind this trip by the Head of State to the East of France, “we see that the idea is basically to thwart the image of a head of state who would be disconnected from the country, who would be bunkered at the Élysée”, he explains. According to him, “the idea is to try to reconnect with the depths of the country”but “For it to work, it will first take a lot of time”, he said.
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franceinfo: Was the Élysée surprised by the reception in Alsace?
Bruno Cautrès: We can not imagine that the Elysée could have wanted to expose the President of the Republic to the scenes we saw yesterday. Obviously, the Head of State knows very well that today, whatever the trip and wherever he is going, trade unionists are waiting for him, French men and women are waiting for him to remind him this divorce with opinion about the pension reform. Yesterday, we nevertheless saw a certain number of sequences which were difficult, even if the Head of State lived up to his reputation, that is to say to move forward, to go towards the people, including responding to those who challenged him verbally in an extremely strong way.
Have we ever seen a head of state so strongly stretched out?
There have been other heads of state who, in our political life, have experienced difficult travels. What is fundamentally difficult for Emmanuel Macron is above all that it is this feeling of denial of democracy that has taken hold. We see that it is no longer really the question of pensions where it is no longer just the question of pensions, but it is the Macron method, it is the Macron style and perhaps even the Macron person who is very strongly contested in several segments of opinion.
The Head of State cannot help but drop small sentences. During his trip to Alsace, he declared that “It’s not the saucepans that make France move forward”. Is it a communication problem?
His popularity ratings measured by the various polls place him practically at the level of the Yellow Vests crisis. It is a difficult situation. At some point there is a spiral. For the head of state, if he wants to restore his popularity, the spiral must stop. Indeed, if we go from a short sentence to a difficult movement, for him, it will become very difficult at a given moment when unpopularity, if it becomes too strong, is practically something extremely difficult to catch up with.
Emmanuel Macron wants to show that he is not prevented. Can this posture, against all odds, ultimately pay off?
We see that the idea is basically to thwart the image of a head of state who would be disconnected from the country, who would be bunkered at the Élysée and who could no longer leave. The idea is to try to reconnect with the depths of the country. For it to work, it will first take a long time, no doubt because the crisis has had a profound effect on public opinion. Then the Head of State must find a way to break the image of the Head of State who decides too much on his own and who does not know how to listen enough to the country. The Head of State, for the moment, is sending the message that he had no choice for the pension reform, that it is a question of the survival of the pay-as-you-go pension system, but that now he wishes to initiate a new phase of dialogue. We see that for the moment some unions do not believe in it. It does not work. The Head of State will have to provide guarantees in terms of method, mainly method of government.
In an interview in the regional press, Emmanuel Macron undertakes to faithfully transcribe the agreements reached between employers and unions on work. This could reassure the unions, in your opinion?
Unions will be faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, they don’t want to send the message that they’re right back around the table. They felt a bit cheated. And then, at the same time, the Head of State invites them on themes which are fundamental for trade unionists, the question of remuneration, the question of training, the question of careers. These are all fundamental issues. So, in the long term, it is obvious that the unions will come back to discuss with the Head of State, of course. But once again, from the Head of State’s point of view, there will be the question of method, but also of credibility. Let us remember that at the end of the citizens’ convention on the climate, the Head of State said “I will take up your proposals without filter”. So, the Head of State now has to, when he makes a commitment in this direction to listen to and take up proposals from civil society, it has to go further.