French energy crisis sends Macron's popularity plummeting to 36%

PARIS (AA) - A poll by the French polling institute BVA has found that the French president's popularity is down to 36%. This is the lowest level since February 2020.

According to the poll, only 36% of French people still have a good opinion of the president (-7 points compared with the previous month), while 63% have a poor opinion of him (+6 points).

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also slips further in the poll. Only 41% of French people now say they have a good opinion of her, down 10 percentage points from September.

The reasons for the government's poor scores are the energy crisis, galloping inflation and bottlenecks at French gas stations.

However, Macron also incurred additional displeasure when, amid the chaos at French gas stations, he congratulated French soccer player Karim Benzema of Real Madrid via Twitter for winning the important Ballon d'Or award, according to the online platform France Live.

The tweet was deemed inappropriate by many internet users, which further damaged Macron's popularity, the report said.