Interview with Emmanuel Macron: "Powerless," "out of touch," "out of breath"... Opposition critics attack the head of state

Expert opinion: Monday evening on TF1, "we had a president at the end of his term, without a parliamentary majority, who thought he was the Prime Minister," summarized François Hollande on Franceinfo. Even while waving his referendum prerogatives, with his idea of ​​a "multiple consultation" on several subjects "at the same time," Emmanuel Macron did little to convince his predecessor.

"Multiple questions don't exist in the Constitution," François Hollande dismissed. At least he "could have stated the topics on which he truly intends to ask the French people questions," Olivier Faure lamented on TF1.

"Commenting on one's own impotence"

From the more than three-hour broadcast, the Socialist Party's first secretary retained "the feeling of a president who had come to comment on his own impotence." As in the Arcelor Mittal case, where "he could have announced that temporary nationalization is possible," instead of rejecting this scenario, pointing out its cost.

"Yesterday, we clearly saw that the change in political direction would not happen until the end of the term," summarized Marine Tondelier on Public Sénat. Judging similarly that the Élysée Palace tenant was "showcasing his impotence," the leader of the Ecologists criticized him for "not putting himself at risk on anything" by ruling out the option of a referendum on "all the issues where he risks being disavowed," notably pensions. "It was long and painful," she insisted, lamenting having to "wait until 11 p.m. for us to even talk a little bit about ecology," a topic barely developed "in 3 minutes 46 seconds with a stopwatch in hand," according to Marine Tondelier.

Dissatisfaction shared on the right, including Laurent Wauquiez, who "found it very interminable and rather vague." The leader of the LR deputies confided on France 2 his "impression that this dying Macronism is out of steam for two years and can no longer do anything." This is particularly true regarding immigration, on which the head of state has ruled out calling a referendum. A "dismaying" veto, when "it is undoubtedly one of the most worrying subjects for the French," Laurent Wauquiez emphasized.

The far right even sees this as confirmation that the president is "totally out of touch with the realities of the French people," Sébastien Chenu added on RTL, pointing to "totally out-of-touch approaches" such as renting prison places abroad to combat prison overcrowding in France.

"A commentator on his shortcomings," Emmanuel Macron "doesn't take responsibility for any of his failures" and "shifts the blame when something goes wrong," the vice-president of the National Rally slammed. "He doesn't apologize, he doesn't explain [...] as soon as a problem arises, it's not him," his fellow MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy reacted in the same vein, lambasting on BFMTV and RMC a "referendum debacle" and accusing the president of having "lied when he said we were going to save the blast furnaces" of ArcelorMittal in Dunkirk and Fos-sur-Mer.

Overwhelmed from all sides, the head of state received little support from the few members of the government invited to comment on his performance on the morning radio and television shows. "I'm still not a Macronist," affirmed Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who confessed on CNews and Europe 1 that he too found the show "long."