France Politics: Macron faces domestic challenges, ratings drop

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Europe

02:58

Over to France now, The country's President Emmanuel Macron is tumbling in opinion polls after 18 months in power. Some polls are showing just 29 percent of voters still back him. The French government is struggling to play down the public perception that it's in crisis, after the interior minister this week became Macron's seventh key official to resign. Elena Casas reports from Paris.

These French pensioners are angry - at a new government measure to increase taxes on their pension payouts, costing the average retiree 460 dollars a year.

MARIAN DELRANCKE PENSIONER "Pensioners aren't privileged, even those who have average or above average incomes worked all their lives and paid contributions to get their pensions, and the government shouldn't be touching them."

JEAN-JACQUES ANDING PENSIONER "Macron has to change direction, his government was supposed to be of both the left and the right, it just seems to be of the right and the right to me. We're waiting for more social policies which don't come, especially for pensioners."

That criticism - that President Macron's policies, like recent tax cuts, favor the rich - is becoming louder and louder in France.

ELENA CASAS PARIS "Pensioners aren't the only ones unhappy with Macron's government. Austerity measures, like cuts to housing benefit, have hit people on low incomes, while those in the public sector are worried about job cuts. But the president's biggest problem could be the perception that he's arrogant and out of touch."

The president's off the cuff remarks to the public - like telling a young jobseeker he'd find a job if he crossed the road - haven't helped.

Nor did a scandal that dominated headlines in July - when a video went viral showing an aide to the President, Alexander Benalla, caught on camera beating up protesters at a demonstration in May.

The presidency's attempt to cover that up triggered a falling out with interior minister Gerard Collomb, one of Macron's most respected backers, leading him to quit this week.

He's the seventh cabinet minister to leave in Macron's 17 months in power, sparking reports the government is in crisis. But the president shows no sign of changing tack on his controversial reform agenda.

THOMAS GUENOLE POLITICAL ANALYST "He's ready to keep implementing reforms whatever the popularity issues are, so we know he's still got the political courage, but maybe he underestimates how fragile the support of his own troops will become."

Plans to shake up pensions and unemployment benefits are set to be announced in the next couple of months - and are likely to stir up opposition even further. Elena Casas, CGTN, Paris.