An opinion poll carried out by the Elabe Institute shows that only 13 per cent of the population are satisfied with French President Emmanuel Macron’s performance.
This is a significant drop of 11 percentage points since August, according to Le Journal du Dimanche. As many as 82 per cent of those surveyed – a ‘historic’ high – said they did not trust the president. This includes the 60 per cent who stated that they ‘do not trust him at all’.
This means that Macron, now as he nears the end of his second and final presidential term, has fallen below the level of his scandal-plagued Socialist predecessor François Hollande, who was president from 2012 to 2017.
“This is the lowest trust rating ever recorded by the Elabe barometer: The President of the Republic is below François Hollande’s previous record of 14 per cent from November 2016, and below Emmanuel Macron’s previous low of 14 per cent from October 2025,” noted Elabe.
The situation has changed since 2017, when the media portrayed Macron as a saviour. The Economist featured a front-page illustration in which Macron was literally walked on water, like a new Messiah.
Macron’s dramatic decline over the past two months is likely due in large part to the so-called student protest movement, which in reality has consisted of several weeks of riots carried out by radical groups on the far left and disaffected young people from Islamic communities.
Macron has been accused of appearing paralysed during the riots, which were characterised by widespread violence and unrest.
Instead of taking personal responsibility for the government’s failure, Macron has sought to shift the blame onto a wide range of external forces, including US President Donald Trump for driving up energy costs in Europe as a result of the war against Iran.
Macron has refused to discuss whether France’s immigration policy might be part of the explanation for the riots, the violence, the destruction and the looting.
JD Vance says it plain and simple: The riots in France are due to immigration
Riots expected after the presidential election
France is heading towards a presidential election, to be held on 18 April, with a second round on 2 May if no candidate secures an outright majority in the first round. Opinion polls have long suggested that Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National will become France’s next president. Unlike Macron, Le Pen has seen her position strengthened as a result of the riots, and she has promised to ‘restore law and order’ in the country.
Her main opponent in the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical left-wing party La France Insoumise, has supported the protesters. Mélenchon and several other representatives of his party are attempting to win votes from France’s large Muslim population. He probably already has a firm hold on voters from the far left.
Will she recapture the courage of Joan of Arc?
When Le Pen launched her election campaign in Orléans on 25 October, she paid tribute to Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orléans, who led the liberation of the city on 8 May 1429:
‘History is not written with resignation, but with courage. It is forged with determination and perseverance. We are all fighting for our homeland – French people in metropolitan France, in overseas territories and around the world, French people in the cities, the suburbs and the countryside. This decisive battle reminds us that serving one’s country is a natural calling, an enormous responsibility, a sacred duty.
Here in Orléans, the city of our national heroine, the symbol of the rejection of resignation and fatalism, begins the great battle for France, the one that will lead our country into a new era. It is for our beautiful country, so that hope and strength, pride and greatness may return. It will be for the world: the return of France.”
Le Pen issued clear warnings to those behind the riots or who break French law in other ways.
“We shall restore the rule of law. Who can say that the rule of law prevails when lawbreakers go unpunished, when the mafia imposes its own law in neighbourhoods, when hordes come to loot and burn down our buildings right in front of unarmed police officers?
Anyone who breaks the law, and in particular anyone who harms firefighters, teachers or police officers, will face three guarantees: a guarantee of prosecution, a guarantee of conviction and a guarantee that the sentence will be enforced. For foreign offenders: automatic deportation.”
If Le Pen wins the election this spring, there is every reason to fear that riots will once again break out in French cities.
