Macron now less popular than Trump

Stuff reports:

According to the latest YouGov poll, published at the beginning of August, just 36 per cent of the French now approve of their president, roughly the same as the percentage of Americans who approve of Trump. On May 7, 66 per cent of French voters supported Macron.

That is a huge decline in just three months.

In three months in power, the new head of state has been reluctant to grant interviews, preferring to deliver lengthy orations in the halls of Versailles, France’s historic seat of absolute monarchy, and such regal optics have not played well with the media or the public. Macron is more unpopular at the three-month point of his first term than any of his immediate predecessors – Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac – were at the same point, according to Ifop, the Paris-based polling firm.

Maybe he thinks he is Emperor not President!

After his inauguration, the new president quickly set his sights on military expenditures, a not-unexpected move given his promises to slash government spending as a way to keep France in line with European Union budgetary guidelines. Although he pledged to increase military spending by next year, he plans to go ahead with previously announced cuts of almost US$1 billion (NZ$1.36 billion) to the 2017 defense budget.

That amount represents a small fraction of the French military’s total annual budget of US$37 billion. But against the backdrop of France’s efforts to combat terrorism at home and abroad, Macron’s decision was seen by military officials as a betrayal. In mid-July, the country’s top-ranking general, Pierre de Villiers, resigned in protest.

As France faces internal and external security threats, it is not a good time to reduce security spending.

He told a gathering of military officers that he is their boss and doesn’t need their commentary!!