Paris — French President Emmanuel Macron heads into the summer break faced with falling popularity ratings after tough debates in parliament over labour reform and a public ethics law, a standoff with the military and cuts to housing assistance. A YouGov poll published on Thursday showed 36% of voters held a favourable view of the 39-year-old, a fall of 7 points on the previous month and echoing the downward trend seen in various other surveys. Centrist Macron, France’s youngest leader since Napoleon Bonaparte, was elected in May on a promise to usher in sweeping economic and social reforms to haul France out of its economic malaise. The main concern of voters was the same as before the election — unemployment — the YouGov survey showed. On the jobs reform front, Macron’s government scored a victory this week when it won the Senate’s backing to deregulate the labour market that will now go back to company bosses and trade unions before being written into law. Parliament’s lower hous...
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