France’s Macron Faces Angry Voters as He Fights for 2nd Term

France's President and French liberal party La Republique en Marche (LREM) candidate to his succession Emmanuel Macron (C,R) listens to Chatenois' mayor Luc Adoneth (C,L) during a one-day campaign visit in the Grand-Est region, in Chatenois, eastern France, on April 12, 2022. (AFP)
France's President and French liberal party La Republique en Marche (LREM) candidate to his succession Emmanuel Macron (C,R) listens to Chatenois' mayor Luc Adoneth (C,L) during a one-day campaign visit in the Grand-Est region, in Chatenois, eastern France, on April 12, 2022. (AFP)
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France’s Macron Faces Angry Voters as He Fights for 2nd Term

France's President and French liberal party La Republique en Marche (LREM) candidate to his succession Emmanuel Macron (C,R) listens to Chatenois' mayor Luc Adoneth (C,L) during a one-day campaign visit in the Grand-Est region, in Chatenois, eastern France, on April 12, 2022. (AFP)
France's President and French liberal party La Republique en Marche (LREM) candidate to his succession Emmanuel Macron (C,R) listens to Chatenois' mayor Luc Adoneth (C,L) during a one-day campaign visit in the Grand-Est region, in Chatenois, eastern France, on April 12, 2022. (AFP)

Facing a tougher-than expected fight for reelection, French President Emmanuel Macron has hit the campaign trail at last - and it isn't always proving welcoming.

But he's not shying away from angry voters, instead engaging in lively, sometimes confrontational debates. Since he and far-right nationalist rival Marine Le Pen qualified Sunday for France's April 24 presidential runoff, Macron has seemed eager to go in the field to explain his policies and try to convince people to hand him a second term.

On Tuesday, he was asked hard questions during a visit to the eastern city of Mulhouse.

"Why didn’t you help the poorest?"

"Why do hospitals suffer from shortages of beds and shortages of health workers?”

"How can you propose to push back retirement age from 62 to 65 when so many people are jobless?”

The 44-year-old leader appeared determined to explain his policies at length - but sometimes grew impatient when people kept contradicting him.

Before Sunday's first round presidential vote which had 12 candidates, Macron skipped most campaign activities, focusing his time at the Elysee Presidential Palace on diplomatic efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Domestic critics decried the perceived lack of debate in France's presidential campaign.

Now the role of candidate has taken over. Macron is considered the favorite by the polls, but Le Pen appears to have significantly narrowed the gap from 2017, when he trounced her in the same presidential runoff.

On Monday, Macron went to an economically depressed region in northern France that is considered Le Pen’s stronghold. The next day, he visited the eastern cities of Mulhouse and Strasbourg, where far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third Sunday, got a majority of the first-round vote.

Upon his arrival in Mulhouse, Macron literally ran toward the small crowd waiting for him. He met some supporters, but also angry, discouraged workers from a nearby public hospital who came to challenge him.

"We are exhausted,” some nurses told him. "Improve our working conditions!”

A 61-year-old health care worker said he worked for 30 years and but is earning only 1,885 euros ($2,051) a month.

"I am not thinking about myself. I am thinking of my children, my grandchildren," he said, explaining his vote.

Macron mentioned changes his government had made amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including a small salary increase for hospital workers.

"Have your earnings been increased?” he asked.

"We don’t feel the impact of it,” the man answered.

Another health care worker asked him about hospitals "losing beds” as the pandemic is still going on.

"I know, that is the challenge we are facing,” Macron acknowledged, explaining that the issue is about a lack of trained hospital staff, a situation amplified in a region where many French seek work in neighboring Germany and Switzerland where wages are higher.

"Two years ago, I made commitments… and the salaries were increased. And 183 euros ($199) per month, you can’t say that’s nothing,” Macron insisted.

Another big obstacle repeatedly came Macron’s way: his planned pension changes. Macron wants to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65, which he argues is needed so France can keep financing the pensions. Le Pen says she would maintain the retirement age at 62. The issue prompted major street protests in late 2019, and Macron then had to postpone his plans amid the COVID-19 crisis.

"We must work longer,” Macron said. "It’s not true we can keep financing our social model if we don’t push back (the retirement age).”

He kept repeating that the retirement changes would be implemented very gradually through 2031 and opened the door to softening the reform, as he seeks to attract voters who chose other candidates in the first round.

Le Pen's supporters credit her months of campaigning in France's provinces for her strong first-round showing. But as Macron joined the fray at last, he sought to make a distinction between their campaigns, criticizing those candidates "who never go to meet opponents."

"I'm not going to meet only people who like me,” he said.



Trump Envoy Arrives in Kyiv as US Pledges Patriot Missiles to Ukraine

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
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Trump Envoy Arrives in Kyiv as US Pledges Patriot Missiles to Ukraine

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

US President Donald Trump´s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, arrived in Kyiv on Monday, a senior Ukrainian official said, as anticipation grew over a possible shift in the Trump administration´s policy on the more than three-year war.

Trump last week teased that he would make a "major statement" on Russia on Monday. Trump made quickly stopping the war one of his diplomatic priorities, and he has increasingly expressed frustration about Russian President Vladimir Putin´s unbudging stance on US-led peace efforts.

Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and after taking office in January repeatedly said that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. At the same time, Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a "dictator without elections”, AFP said.

But Russia´s relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump´s patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to "STOP!" launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader " has gone absolutely CRAZY!" as the bombardments continued.

"I am very disappointed with President Putin, I thought he was somebody that meant what he said," Trump said late Sunday. "He´ll talk so beautifully and then he´ll bomb people at night. We don´t like that."

Trump confirmed the US is sending Ukraine badly needed US-made Patriot air defense missiles to help it fend off Russia´s intensifying aerial attacks.

Trump said that the European Union will pay the US for the "various pieces of very sophisticated" weaponry it is sending.

However, the EU is not allowed under its treaties to buy weapons. EU member countries are buying and sending weapons to Ukraine, just as NATO member countries are buying and sending weapons. EU countries set up the European Peace Facility so that countries which supply arms to Ukraine could be refunded to backfill their own stocks.

Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine's air defenses are struggling to counter. June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine said Thursday. Russia launched 10 times more drones and missiles in June than in the same month last year, it said.

That has happened at the same time as Russia's bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict is nearing an inflection point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight back against Russia's full-scale invasion. It´s a cause that Trump had previously dismissed as being a waste of US taxpayer money.

"In the coming days, you´ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves," Graham said on CBS´ "Face the Nation." He added: "One of the biggest miscalculations (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has made is to play Trump. And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there´s going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table."

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin´s envoy for international investment, dismissed what he said were efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington.

"Constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States is more effective than doomed-to-fail attempts at pressure," Dmitriev said in a post on Telegram. "This dialogue will continue, despite titanic efforts to disrupt it by all possible means."

"Equal dialogue, mutual respect, realism and economic cooperation are the foundations of global security," he added, echoing comments by Putin.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was due in Washington on Monday and Tuesday. He planned to hold talks with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as members of Congress.

Talks during Kellogg´s visit to Kyiv will cover "defense, strengthening security, weapons, sanctions, protection of our people and enhancing cooperation between Ukraine and the United States," said the head of Ukraine´s presidential office, Andrii Yermak.

"Russia does not want a cease fire. Peace through strength is President Donald Trump´s principle, and we support this approach," Yermak said.

Russian troops conducted a combined aerial strike at Shostka, in the northern Sumy region of Ukraine, using glide bombs and drones early Monday morning, killing two people, the regional prosecutor´s office said. Four others were injured, including a 7-year-old, it said.

Overnight from Sunday to Monday, Russia fired four S-300/400 missiles and 136 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine, the air force said. It said that 61 drones were intercepted and 47 more were either jammed or lost from radars mid-flight.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defenses downed 11 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions on the border with Ukraine, as well as over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.