French President Emmanuel Macron | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images Macron criticizes ‘ultra-liberal’ Europe French president points the finger at all those who have resisted his plans.

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron is gearing up to win back his popularity and influence in the European Union — by railing against "ultra-liberals" who he says have failed the bloc's working people.

In his first appearance on a radio talk show since he was sworn in, the increasingly unpopular French president came out swinging against an EU he is better known for defending against opponents such as Matteo Salvini, Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin.

The EU is letting down its middle classes, ignoring their legitimate fears and exposing itself to a populist wave that could ultimately submerge the bloc, Macron told Europe 1 radio a few months before his centrist La République En Marche starts campaigning for the European Parliament election.

"Europe, without a doubt, has become too ultra-liberal," he said, adding: "We need a stronger Europe that protects."

The criticism made it sound like Macron, who used the European Union's "Ode to Joy" anthem as the soundtrack to his inauguration at the Louvre in 2017, might be turning against the EU. In France the expression "ultra-liberal" is not a positive one — it refers to unrestrained capitalism that crushes the common worker and enriches elites.

But the chances that Macron has suddenly morphed into a Euroskeptic are next to nil. What's more likely is that the French president, whose approval score has plummeted to around 20 percent in some polls, was lashing out at his opponents in the European Union, naming his enemies and setting the stage for a campaign to grab power in Brussels.

His target was not the right-leaning populists who oppose him face-to-face. By railing against European "ultra-liberals," Macron was pointing to all the factions that have resisted his plans, articulated during his presidential campaign and during a landmark speech at the Sorbonne in Paris, to make the EU a more "protective" bloc via tighter security cooperation, taxes on digital giants and tougher restrictions on state-aid takeovers.

To an extent, that resistance has come from within the European Commission, where proponents of free trade never embraced Macron's theory of "smart protectionism" in trade. But even more so, it's come from countries including the free-trading Nordics, the market-friendly Netherlands, the libertarian Baltic states and, increasingly, conservative-led Germany, which oppose his plans.

An example of "ultra-liberal" resistance was on display this week in Brussels, where Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was pitching a French plan to impose a 3 percent revenue tax on companies like Google and Facebook. After more than a year of high-level diplomacy, the best Le Maire was able to extract was a vow from Germany to consider enforcing the tax from 2020, only if and when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is unable to come up with its own solution for taxing digital companies.

Another example has played out over the past few months, as Macron's En Marche movement has sought to forge an alliance with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte ahead of the European election. The difficult negotiations have underscored just how different French and Dutch definitions of "liberal" can be, with the latter party perhaps fitting the bill of "ultra-liberal" for the French leader.

All of which is prompting Macron to make another push to try to impose his vision of a more centralized, interventionist EU in May's elections. To be sure, not much has changed in the EU since Macron swept to power a year ago on the strength of a campaign that already promised a "more protective Europe." Germany remains wedded to a rule-based system that limits any transfer of liability between EU states. The Nordic states remain opposed to taxes that could hurt their profile as export-friendly, market-oriented economies.

But what's changed is the world's vision of Macron. The 38-year-old wunderkind of 2016 has turned into the 40-year-old president of 2018 — a man dogged by scandals and, according to reports, increasingly fatigued by the demands of his job and an unrelenting schedule including less than five hours of sleep of night. Back then, a European establishment terrified of being swept out of power by populists was ready to give Macron the benefit of the doubt on his EU plans.

Today, not so much. Macron no longer inspires giddy confidence in the future. But that may be just what he needs to get fired up — and start punching again.