"I continue to fight for the country to move forward," the head of state said on his arrival at a summit of North Sea countries in Ostend, Belgium, devoted to the development of offshore wind.

"I want to continue to fight on the country's major projects, the major projects," he added, listing the "climate transition", the "major public services", the fight "against long-term unemployment". He also defended his "results" in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, job creation, reindustrialization.

While more or less numerous demonstrators follow him wherever it is announced, including in Belgium, and that the movements of some of his ministers are strongly disrupted, Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that "disagreements" and "protests" were "quite legitimate in democracy".

"The lack of civility of covering up voices or preventing people from doing their job is unacceptable and therefore it will not stop the government from moving forward, nor your servant," he said.

A new poll confirmed on Monday the unpopularity of the head of state after the pension reform.

Two out of three French people consider his action disappointing and seven out of ten consider that his re-election "was a bad thing for the country," says this study conducted by the Elabe institute for BFMTV, conducted from April 22 to 24 with a sample of 1,002 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over.

In Ostend, the president recalled that he would go Tuesday to talk about "the fight against medical deserts, for emergencies" in Vendôme, in the Loir-et-Cher.

On the future immigration law, he has not clarified how he intends to pass it in the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

After having evoked a text divided into several parts a month ago to facilitate its adoption, he returned this weekend to this position by evoking a single law to tighten the rules and improve integration.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne "will see with the president of the Assembly, the president of the Senate and the political forces what has the best chance of moving forward," he said Monday.

"We must take all the non-legislative measures useful for the country," he explained, then "give ourselves the means to pass there too a useful text for our fellow citizens to better protect our borders, have simpler and more efficient procedures, and better integrate those who come to work and who flee war."

© 2023 AFP