“He campaigned on the idea of trying to slim down the French state, trying to ultimately make it more competitive,” Dr. David Lees, a Warwick University researcher who focuses on French politics, told me. “These things are going to prove unpopular because they will mean a big shakeup of the way France does business.” This shakeup includes, among other things, cutting the number of French lawmakers by a third, reducing public spending, and implementing a number of market-friendly economic reforms (such as new rules that give employers greater flexibility to hire and fire people).

Macron’s image has taken a hit in other ways, too. He’s been accused of being standoffish with the media by granting minimal interviews and cancelling the traditional press conference typically held on Bastille Day (an Élysée Palace source reportedly told French newspaper Le Monde that the president’s “complex thoughts” do not lend themselves well to press interviews). He has also faced pushback for his efforts to establish an official First Lady position, which does not formally exist in France. An online petition opposing the proposal has garnered more than 250,000 signatures so far. It notes that the timing of the proposal is ironic, as the National Assembly only recently passed a measure barring lawmakers from hiring their family members. “Brigitte Macron currently has a team of two or three aides, as well as two secretaries and two security agents,” the petition reads. “That’s enough.”

Although some of Macron’s policies have caused controversy, they were not unexpected. Macron vowed during his presidential campaign to implement many of them, and earned a mandate to do just that when his party, La République En Marche, won an overwhelming majority in the country’s legislative elections. Still, his electoral victory doesn’t necessarily denote public support. “I don’t think he won because of his program—in fact, in many ways he probably won in spite of his program,” Lees said, adding: “He is trying to do things which disrupt that status quo, and that will in turn make him even more unpopular.”

With a sound majority in the National Assembly and a weak, fragmented political opposition, Macron is unlikely to have trouble pushing through his agenda. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t bound by public opinion. If Jupiter, as many have taken to calling him, hopes to stay above the normal political fray and avoid mass protests threatened by some in the opposition, he may want to start listening.