tl;dr in bold
I'm mainly speaking of what impacted Macron's ratings negatively. The main positive things for him were his foreign policies and appearances (like the "make the planet great again" bs)
My hypothesis is that the strikes are coming from - or at least are mainly fueled by the distrust in the political class, and against the government. The anger from the taxes is there, obviously, but I'm not sure there is something to be said about it.
- may 2017 : Macron is elected, held in high esteem by the medias, hated by few and liked by some . Takes office immediately (that's how it works in France) and have the support of some really popular personalities (in sciences, environment, and culture)
- sept 2017 :
- his majority pass a lot of laws that: add leniency to companies when firing people, diminishes the power of unions, weakens the labour legislation
- people get angry , but his election being quite recent his approval ratings are quite unscathed
- he makes some snarky comments against protesters and unemployed, seen as "talking truth" by some medias
- fires the Chief of defence because the guy said he disagreed with the budget. That's seen as unjust/as a proof of strength
- sept 2017 - april 2018 : more snarky comments, sometime against the whole nation.
- 1may 2018 : one of the bodygard - security chief of macron working for his party is seen dressed as a cop (illegal), beating up two seemingly innocent bystanders during the traditionnal demonstration on national labour day . The investigation is botched, the guy ordered three cops to destroy evidence, ask a friend to break the police seal and hides some weapons, etc. The senate and the National assembly launch probes, and the majority botch the one from the national assembly.
- macron does not react. and finally throw some snarky comment
- macron adds that he "assumes" the responsability. But he has presidential protection against all inquiry and can't be prosecuted. He throw a provocation "If they want someone to be held responsible, he is standing in front of you. Come and get me ". oh boy.
- june-august : some public college president let far right militia(with crowbars and bats) enter a building to kick the asses of demonstrating students. Someone fall in coma after falling from a building .
- the governement fail to respond to that, and is quite criticized
and that's where the shit hits the fan. His ratings take something like -8 (wich was still ok-ish)
- 4 september:
- the minister of ecological transition, former tv star, loved by all (really) resigns on air , claiming he was fighting for ecology alone, without any regard or help from the rest of the gov. He mainly blames the people, saying that if everyone was involved the gov would have helped him. And that the lobbys destroyed every hope of progress in this part.? French people are getting pissed. That's another -10 for the president.
- the highschoolers dislike their reform
- 11 november
- macron pay respects to a WW1 "hero" that received "national indignity" and had been sentenced to death(not applied) for colluding with the Third Reich and helping them deporting and killing jews.
And this was a fucking mistake. Pétain is the personification of the shameful collusion with hitler and I can't empathize enough how he's despised. Bringing his name to a discussion with French people is probably the worst thing you can do. Worse than just saying we got our asses kicked and surrendered quickly.
At the same time the gas is getting really expensive, around 6$/gal and macron is seen as an arrogant fucker, now most despised political figure in France, according to some polls. with around 27% approval.
some retards make a Facebook page saying we should block the country the 17 nov, and voila, someone lit the powder barrel.
