Where did it all go wrong for Emmanuel Macron?

Twelve months ago Le Journal du Dimanche published an opinion poll in which Emmanuel Macron had an approval rating of 52 per cent. A fortnight ago the same paper ran a poll in which the president’s popularity stood at 23 per cent.

Where has it gone so wrong for the man once likened among sections of the French press to a cross between Jupiter and Christ? More to the point how could The Spectator get it so wrong in running a piece last December entitled ‘Macron is becoming the darling of the Deplorables’?

I can only assume that when I wrote that article, in particular the line about Macron having ‘a wise head on those young political shoulders’, I had come from a long Christmas lunch.

In my defence I would like to point out that I did temper my praise with some cautious prognosis. Describing Macron’s adroit handling of Johnny Hallyday’s funeral, for which one million mourners came to Paris, I wrote: ‘Johnny’s fans, the ‘Deplorables’, are proud of their country and its culture…[but] the support of the ‘Deplorables’ remains fragile, their scepticism never far from the surface, and they will move to the right should Macron start ignoring their concerns.