Emmanuel Macron’s approval ratings have plunged to their lowest since he took office in 2017 after his latest attempt to reconnect with ordinary citizens humiliatingly backfired, reports The Telegraph.
The French president has been left with egg on his face after an ill-advised exchange with a TikTok influencer – whom it later widely emerged was an Islamic fundamentalist.
The social media personality also once dubbed Mr Macron a “dwarf married to his French teacher” at the helm of a “country the size of a potato crisp”, among other insults.
The botched PR move comes after aides confessed that 46-year-old Mr Macron was feeling “sad” and isolated as he struggled to exist on the domestic political stage following his disastrous decision to call snap elections last July, which saw him lose a parliamentary majority and much of his once vast executive powers.
The president has scored some unquestionable coups internationally, presiding over last year’s successful Paris Olympics and the Notre-Dame reopening ceremony in the presence of world leaders, including the then US president-elect Donald Trump.
However, his popularity at home is disastrously low.