Assailed by social unrest and lagging in opinion polls, French President Emmanuel Macron has for now managed to cling on to a well of support from company leaders in France even as his reform push loses momentum. Executives attending an annual economic conference in Aix-en-Provence were more than happy to cut Macron slack for the setbacks the 41-year-old's pro-business overhaul of the country has faced.
"Macron made some mistakes but he realised it and took measures to fix them," a senior French banker told Reuters at the conference bringing together France's corporate elite in the southern college town for a weekend of lofty debates about the state of the world.
"The situation isn't as bad as some think. He's done more in two years than other presidents did in five or 10 years," the banker added.
Two years into his presidency, Macron's reform agenda has taken a backseat after several months spent rebuilding political capital and trying to quell anti-government "yellow vest" protests.
That included a series of nationwide townhall debates and policy U-turns on issues like planned fuel tax hikes, as Macron also sought to repair his oft-cited image as an arrogant leader.
The former investment banker lost little time in his first months in office overhauling France's strict labour code to make it easier to hire and fire, as employers had long urged, and also brought in tax cuts for investors and companies to encourage job-creating investment.
But plans to reform unemployment insurance were only unveiled in June after months of delay, and a well-flagged pension overhaul now looks unlikely to happen before next year.
Both moves are expected to meet stiff resistance from unions, which could become a problem for Macron after he rode roughshod over worker representatives in his 2018 overhaul of indebted state-run rail company SNCF.
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