Polls have sent French President Emmanuel Macron's approval rating downwards

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On Wednesday, an Ipsos Game Changers poll for the weekly Le Point showed 58 percent of French people now have a negative opinion of Mr Macron’s ability to govern, up six points from Ipsos’ previous poll in April. Only 37 percent said the 40-year-old centrist was doing a good job as president, down three points in one month. Another poll published on Friday echoed these results. The survey, conducted by BVA for RTL radio, website La Tribune and Orange, showed 56 percent of respondents had a negative opinion of Mr Macron, up two points from BVA’s April poll. Just 40 percent of French people told BVA pollsters they had a favourable opinion of Mr Macron, down three points in one month.

The polls also showed wavering support for France’s conservative Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. The Ipsos Game Changers poll showed 55 percent of French people disapproved of his actions versus 35 per cent who said they approved; while the BVA poll showed that 53 per cent disapproved and 43 per cent approved. In the past weeks, the two French leaders have been hit on several fronts by unionists and civil servants opposed to their push to modernise France via a series of tough economic reforms, namely the SNCF rail reform and public sector reform. State workers staged nationwide protests earlier this week to denounce a government “attack” on the public sector following a proposal to end certain sick leave perks and slash 120,000 civil service jobs in five years.

They are also opposed to a plan to make a progressive switch to contract hiring over job-for-life recruitment, which is standard in the French civil service. Rail workers have been staging rolling strikes since early April over plans to scrap their special employment benefits, including job-for-life guarantees and early retirement. But the French centrist has not let rising discontent at home put a dent in his high international profile. On Thursday, Mr Macron headed to St. Petersburg to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in an effort to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal following Washington’s recent withdrawal.

France in protest at Macron's labour law reforms Tue, September 12, 2017 Emmanuel Macron faces the first challenge on the streets to his business-friendly reform agenda on Tuesday, when workers from the CGT union march through French cities to protest against a loosening of labor regulations Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 14 French anti-riot police force CRS officers clash with demonstrators during a protest called by several French unions against the labour law reform in Lyon, on September 12, 2017