PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity shot up by six points in July to reach the 50% threshold in an opinion poll on Wednesday, after clinching a deal with other European leaders on an economic recovery package and reshuffling his government.
In the Harris Interactive poll for LCI TV, half of respondents said they were confident in Macron’s policies for France, only the second time since April 2018 the French president reached the 50% mark.
The poll was taken on July 21-23, shortly after the 27 EU leaders agreed on a 750 billion euro stimulus that Macron said was “historic” and that should see France receive at least 40 billion euros in grants to help recovery from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Macron also changed his prime minister in early July and reshuffled his government.
The new prime minister, Jean Castex, saw his first popularity rating stand at 56% in the same Harris poll, higher than the 51% his predecessor, Edouard Philippe, had.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Grant McCool)
