Emmanuel Macron enters his second Congress in a difficult context

One year already, only one year. In 2017, at the same time of the year, Emmanuel Macron was speaking at Versailles, before the Parliament gathered in Congress, to expose his course. Monday, he will repeat the exercise. While some things seem unchangeable, including critics of the opposition who partly wants to boycott an appointment blooming too much the presidential monarchy to his taste, others have changed in twelve months.

Emmanuel Macron indeed addresses his second Congress in a much more difficult context. In 2017, he came home with his victory in the presidential election, and that of his movement in the legislative elections. A year later, it is after long weeks of polemics, criticism and bad polls that he shows himself before the Congress.

Diving in the polls. Admittedly, "if we are disturbed by the polls, we must go do something else than politics," swept the spokesman of the government, Benjamin Griveaux, Friday morning on Europe 1. Remains that the opinion polls n ' augur nothing good for the head of state. According to the Elabe barometer for Les Echos and Clbadical Radio published Thursday, the president loses 6 points, 34% of good opinions. His lowest level since his election. Barely three points more than François Hollande at the same period of his mandate. But another survey, signed Odoxa for Le Figaro and Franceinfo, is even more disturbing, identifying concrete criticisms: only 29% of respondents consider government policy "fair". And 34% deem it "effective". This leaves many dissatisfied

"President of the rich". The last weeks have been particularly trying for the head of state, who has chained polemics and failed communication sequences. We remember of course the outcry aroused by a video on social badistance, in which the Head of State considered that they cost "a dough crazy", broadcast by the head of communication Elysee, Sibeth Ndiaye. But this episode has actually increased the image of "president of the rich" sticking to Emmanuel Macron more surely than the plaster to Captain Haddock. And it is not the postponement of the presentation of the poverty plan, initially planned precisely for the Congress, which will reverse the trend.

"Negative impression". The episodes of the purchase of dishes by the Élysée or the construction of a pool at Fort Brégançon have also contributed to the erosion of the image of the head of state, according to Frédéric Dabi, deputy general manager of Ifop. "Emmanuel Macron made president over François Hollande, appears more master of him than Nicolas Sarkozy, but he is caught up by a series of small facts that give a negative impression among the French." Nevertheless, the pollster notes that the president "keeps a very important base", with overall 41% of respondents who approve his policy, according to an Ifop / Fiducial survey published Tuesday for Paris Match and Sud-Radio.

The last months has also been marked by several unpopular measures: the lowering of the speed to 80km / h on some secondary roads for example, which makes the teeth of many motorists cringe, but also the vagueness that remains around the maintenance of survivors pensions for Widows and Widows

The Migrant Crisis Phagocyte Everything Finally, the "and at the same time" mantra of the executive has come up against the migrant crisis. Judged too lax right, terribly wait-and-see left, the government lost feathers on both sides of the political spectrum after refusing to host the Aquarius. Not to mention that the European crisis that followed has phagocyted the media and presidential time, putting other issues in the background. In addition to the poverty plan, many reforms have fallen behind, from the Pact law to health and hospital, through the draft law on mobility.

Different context, different issues. Because this second Congress comes in a period of hollow for the executive, it will be less question to chart the course than to give a second wind to the quinquennium.