(August 7th, 2017, 10:31)scooter Wrote: I haven't been following. What's he done to make him so unpopular so quickly? That's down to Trump levels of popularity.
A quick google finds a lot of disagreement on this question
. So either English-speaking sources don't know, or more likely everyone is saying 'because he doesn't agree with me, and I'm Obviously Right.'
I see a couple categories of complaints about him. One set says that he's done a lot of things that seem arrogant and self-serving, like trying to get his wife declared First Lady of France (a position that previously didn't exist) or giving a speech from Versailles. I don't know how many of these sorts of things are unique to him, though, and maybe the complaining articles are a symptom of the popularity deficit rather than a cause. Maybe speaking from Versailles would be a non-story if people liked him in the first place, they'd look at it as respect for French heritage instead of behaving like Louis XIV.
Another category is that he's apparently been cutting benefits, pushing to reform French labor law, cutting the military budget, and so on. People always object to a reduction in government spending, even if it's necessary.
My personal theory is that it's a symptom of the fragmentation of French politics, more than anything about him specifically. Looking at Wikipedia, he had only 24% of the vote in the first round. It's true that 66% of voters agreed he was better than Le Pen, but I can easily imagine both disapproving of him and thinking Le Pen would have been worse.
Basically, take your comment about Trump and apply it here too:
scooter Wrote:Whoever won that election was going to have a poor approval rating.
Start with all the Le Pen voters disapproving of him, then add in a bunch of the people who voted him as the lesser evil, not because they agreed with his platform. Just because he's not moving in the Le Pen direction doesn't mean he's going toward what you want. Then you can add in everyone from his supporters who thinks he's not moving fast enough. It's plausible anyway.
That theory would imply that anyone would have a low approval rating, and will have, until French voters start agreeing with each other on what should be done.
But of course bear in mind this is an American low-interest perspective. I'm sure someone like AdrienIer has a better idea.
