‘Macron consistently misjudges the views of the French public,’ says Berkeley expert

France is in danger of entering a permanent conflict, in case President Emmanuel Macron is forced to "cohabit" with Jordan Bardella after the elections. This is the assessment of political scientist Jonah Levy, vice chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Berkeley and an expert on French politics.

In your view, why has the Macron administration failed to convince people to vote for his liberal scheme?

To put it in a Greek context, I would say he is almost the opposite of what SYRIZA was in Greece. That is not being very good or skillful at promoting populism and making all kinds of errors. Macron consistently misjudges the views of the French public regarding his economic reforms, like raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 or repeatedly reducing unemployment benefits. So, he became wildly unpopular. Part of the problem for...