Stephen Lendman

The former Rothschild banker, economy minister’s honeymoon began by defeating Marine Le Pen decisively on May 7.

Two weeks later, opinion polls showed 62% of respondents viewed him favorably.

His fall from grace was swift, an early August YouGov poll, showing his approval rating plunged to 36% - the lowest ever for a French president this early in his tenure.

He’s accused of ignoring his core supporters. WikiLeaks published thousands of embarrassing emails relating to his campaign and earlier. Italian psychiatrist Dr. Adriano Segator called him a “dangerous psychopath,” saying “we have a case of full-blown narcissism.”

“When he talks about the poor or insults the workers of northern France, reducing them to smokers and alcoholics, when he denigrates women, lowering them to the level of the ignorant, we have returned to the ideas perfectly explained by Jacques Lacan.”

“Emmanuel Macron, like all psychopaths, is highly dangerous.” He’s a neoliberal reactionary, representing destructive establishment interests, fundamentally against ordinary French citizens and others abroad, allied with US imperialism.

He favors greater privatizations for maximum profits over popular rights and needs.

He supports corporate tax cuts, lower labor costs aiding business at workers’ expense, reduced social spending and deregulation - claiming neoliberal harshness will stimulate economic growth.

Military cuts he proposed got armed forces chief Pierre de Villiers to resign, saying the army had already “given everything away,” adding he would not let himself be “screwed this way.”

French political analyst Maxim Sokolov said his plunge in popular support is “doubly significant, considering that no force majeure circumstances (economic crisis, major terrorist act, military catastrophe, etc.) took place” on his watch so far.

Falling from public grace is one thing. If France’s military rejects him, he’s got a major problem on his hands.

According to Sokolov, he hasn’t done “anything terrible in practical terms” so far. “The truth is much worse than that.”

“He did nothing at all, continuing to make spectacular speeches against pompous scenery, as if the election campaign did not end on May 7, but will continue eternally.”

His rapid plunge in popularity shows most people in France aren’t buying it.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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