Macron came to power in 2017 on a wave of optimism that he was a transformational leader who would bring much-needed reform to France and restore its confidence as a player on the global stage.
But for two years he has been beset by a succession of crises, first, from 2018 to 2019, more than a year of "yellow vests" protests against his reforms, and then a crippling nationwide strike last winter over changes to France's pension system.
The country is now in shock after the beheading of a teacher and the killing of three people in a church, attacks that have been blamed on Islamist radicals and which have propelled the fight against terror to the top of the agenda. The motives behind the shooting of a priest in Lyon on Saturday are still not clear.
And just when the strikes dwindled and Macron began talking confidently about what was to come in the "second act" of his mandate, the world was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced a nationwide lockdown.
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