France has more than just two political parties. Macron started as a centrist populist with his own party, but has leaned to the right with his actions since coming to office.
I understand that there are more than two political parties. I'm not that blind of an American. Just curious how most Frenchmen view their own leaders on the spectrum.
I suppose it depends who you ask. He's less conservative than the traditional right, but economically he's very much on the right side of the spectrum (at least relative to French standards). The prime minister and minister of economy he designated come from the traditional right party.
Center right yes. The prime minister is a from a right party. On average since the election, Macron's popularity went down with French people voting left, and raised (or didn't went down as much) with French people voting right.
The right wing candidate (Fillon) was out of the race due to some financial scandal. The left wing candidate (Hamon) who won the primary wasn't supported by the "left establishement" (who rallied Macron) as he was too much on the left. Macron was also widely supported by the medias, and there was some enthusiasm to have a "fresh" candidate.
He doesn't appeal to conservatives, neither to the left but considering the circumstances it was an easy win for him. I'd say its voter-base are the educated, urban professionals.
Will the establishments then turn away from Macron next election, when they can put up more formidable candidates? My American birds-eye view is that Macron is not very popular.
I think the desire to monitor like this tends to be more about human nature and less about a given political ideology.