France’s president Emmanuel Macron is stepping up plans to restore faith in the EU, a bloc that he says needs to be more protective of its citizens as he seeks to shore up plunging approval ratings, reports the Financial Times.
The French president flew to Salzburg on Wednesday to meet the Austrian, Czech and Slovak leaders to talk about labour rules, before visiting Romania and Bulgaria.
Next week, Mr Macron will also host a meeting with his Italian, Spanish and German counterparts at the Elysée palace to discuss tougher anti-dumping measures and controls over foreign investments in the bloc.
Paris says the flurry of diplomatic activity is intended to push the French president’s EU “protection” agenda, which he outlined after defeating far-right, anti-EU candidate Marine Le Pen in a presidential run-off election in May.
His attempt to bolster support for the EU — reinforcing the idea that the bloc can help its citizens secure a better life — is seen as a key part of his strategy to counter populism and Euroscepticism.
The efforts come at a time of growing defiance at home. Popular support for the 39-year-old centrist Mr Macron has melted away over the summer, from two-thirds to 36 per cent since he was elected.
About 100 days into his five-year term, this is 10 points lower than his deeply unpopular predecessor, Socialist president François Hollande, at the same time of his mandate.
Pollsters point to a series of mis-steps over the budget, badly timed benefit cuts, tax breaks for the wealthy and a controversial reform intended to make the jobs market more flexible.
French prime minister Edouard Philippe indicated in July that some tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses might be delayed to keep the wider-than-expected deficit within EU rules this year, only to reverse course and outline spending cuts a week later.
The move produced Mr Macron’s first significant crisis of his presidency when General Pierre de Villiers, the head of the armed forces, resigned in protest at cuts to the defence budget.
An improvised decision to slash monthly housing allowances by €5 for the poorest then fuelled criticism among hard and moderate leftwing voters that Mr Macron’s policies favoured the wealthier, a sentiment that has been exacerbated by discussion of the labour market reforms that the government is seeking to pass next month.