‘He has invested his role with a certain gravitas’: Macron gets popularity boost amid coronavirus crisis

Emmanuel Macron has seen a boost in his popularity during the coronavirus pandemic, with polls showing his highest approval rating in two years.

More than 40 per cent of French people were happy with the president in March and April, a level he has not seen since two summers ago, according to one survey.

The poll — conducted by Le Journal du Dimanche and Ifop — found his approval rating jumped after last week’s speech to the nation, during which he reflected on the crisis.

Mr Macron not only admitted France was not well-prepared enough to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak, but he said now was the time to make changes — including for himself.

“It was a welcome deviation from the messages of wartime analogy,” Dr Helen Drake, the chair in French and European Studies at Loughborough University London, told The Independent.

The president said the country was effectively “at war” last month as he sent France into lockdown, telling people they must stay at home unless it is essential, in order to tackle the pandemic.

“He is not rigid or fixed,” Dr Drake said. “He is able to change his approach.”

March was Mr Macron’s best month for popularity in more than two years, with 44 per cent of people having a positive opinion of him, according to a separate poll by Ipsos and Le Point.

The French president had faced a new wave of protests over controversial pension reforms in the months before the crisis, following on from the yellow vest protests that started over a hike to fuel tax, but spiralled into a movement against the country’s leader and his economic reforms.

Only 20 per cent of the population had a favourable opinion of Mr Macron in December 2018 while demonstrations swept the nation, according to the Ipsos-LePoint poll.

When asked about Mr Macron’s recent surge in popularity, Dr Paul Smith from the University of Nottingham told The Independent it was not unusual for presidents to see their approval ratings spike during times of crises.

He said Francois Hollande’s popularity rose after the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris in 2015, and Nicolas Sarkozy’s approval rating also jumped during his handling of the 2008 financial crisis.

“I think the important thing is to contextualise this in terms of what happens in crises,” the associate professor in French and Francophone Studies said.

Dr Drake from Loughborough University London said the spike in Mr Macron’s popularity was likely linked to the role of the president in France, who is “expected to become a national figure”.

“He is very articulate, literate, dramatic,” the director of the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance said. “He is able to articulate the sort of solemn message expected out of the presidency rather well.”

In a speech to the nation last week, Mr Macron offered a reflective view on the crisis, saying it was time to ”take a new path, leave behind ideologies and reinvent ourselves. Me, before anyone else.

“This crisis offers a chance to bring us closer together.”

Dr Drake also said the French president is also “constitutionally and historically is seen as more of a father figure” than the British prime minister, who tends to be viewed as more of a partisan figure.

“[Mr Macron] has managed to invest his role with a certain gravitas and authority that is associated with traditional paternal authority,” she said.

In Monday’s address, the president announced France would be extending its nationwide lockdown, which has kept people to stay indoors it is necessary — for example to get medicine or buy food — in a bid to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak.

France has been one of the worst-hit countries in the world by the pandemic, with more than 152,000 confirmed infections to date.

The death toll stood at 19,718 on Monday, according to a Reuters global count.