Paris (France) (AFP) – Young people in turmoil, the nightmare of debt and a campaign captured by the extremes: Macronie is completing ten years in power in a twilight atmosphere, exacerbated by internal rivalries in the presidential race.

Published on: 03/10/2026 - 11:40

It seems a long way from the beginnings, when Emmanuel Macron was able to deploy his supply-side policy in all directions, encouraged by good economic results, optimistically envisaged the establishment of a new points-based pension system or even aroused relative goodwill among young people, he being a forty-year-old president with modern and progressive approaches.

"Macron assassin", "we are right to revolt", "the power is afraid of us"... The protest movement of high school students, starting from a demand for more resources, has continued to expand for a week, supported by France Insoumise (LFI) and now by a vast education inter-union. To the great dismay of the executive who cries manipulation.

"A mobilized youth is more dangerous than an atomic bomb. Don't give up!", cries the head of the Insoumis deputies, Mathilde Panot, megaphone in hand, in the middle of excited high school students, in a video circulating on X.

Principals attacked, mortars fired, high schools burned. In a flash, the protest took on a completely different face, with its procession of violence and clashes between police and demonstrators.

On Friday, nearly 400 high schools remained closed. “735 establishments were disrupted in one way or another,” according to Minister of National Education Edouard Geffray.

In this fracas of images, suspicions and accusations, Emmanuel Macron seems more and more distant, even if he continues to be offensive and pugnacious, in France and internationally.

“Reality is catching up with us”

From Madrid, he ordered the National Rally to “clarify its line” after the accusations of anti-Semitism made against its leader Jordan Bardella and accused the Insoumis of “stirring up fears”.

With relative success, even in his camp. “When we represent France and we are abroad, we do not comment on French political life,” said his former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, candidate for his succession.

A dig that echoes others, recurring in the presidential camp where the rivalry between Édouard Philippe and another ex-Prime Minister of Macronie, Gabriel Attal, also leaves traces in the presidential race.

Enough to fuel fears of a disaster scenario when neither is guaranteed to reach the second round and prevent a final face-to-face between Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

In this already heavy context, the battle that is looming to get a budget voted on in the Assembly in the absence of a majority also takes on a funereal air. Even a first-class funeral for Emmanuel Macron's economic record.

“Reality is catching up with us,” concedes Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, after record interest rates on the debt, calling not to add “instability” to instability.

Against the backdrop of the threat of government censorship, two years after the trauma of the dissolution of the Assembly, which definitively derailed Emmanuel Macron's second five-year term.

“It’s in the interest of the RN (not to censor), then maybe they won’t see it like that,” worries a minister.

“Macronie on fire”

Emmanuel Macron, who had promised, on the evening of his first election in 2017, to do "everything" so that the French "no longer have any reason to vote for the extremes", risks in any case leaving power without having made this commitment a reality.

In the end, the high school crisis further establishes mano a mano between the RN and the Insoumis.

"Marine Le Pen is pulling the chestnuts out of the fire. With guys in black burning trash cans and hitting the cops, people aren't saying 'long live Mélenchon'," said an executive from the central block.

“By agitating the youth, LFI is establishing itself in a form of tango with the far right which is crushing the center and the moderates,” adds a close friend of Emmanuel Macron.

Enough to worsen an already deleterious climate with the multiplication of international crises which are fueling the surge in prices at the pump and weighing down the purchasing power of the French.

“Macronie ended up on fire, in the anger of young people to whom it had promised equal opportunities,” summarizes investment banker Matthieu Pigasse, involved in the campaign alongside the left.

© 2026 AFP

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.