PARIS — There was a time when Alain Minc would sing the praises of French President Emmanuel Macron, comparing him to Napoleon’s generals: an extraordinary being blessed both with talent and luck.

Fast-forward eight years and Minc, Macron’s former mentor and an influential political adviser, now says he’s the “worst” president since France’s Fifth Republic was founded in 1958. Minc says the president’s narcissism has driven him to make reckless decisions that “imperiled French institutions” and boosted the far right ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

“Macron is leaving the country in a much worse state that when he took the reins of power,” Minc said in an interview with POLITICO. “He will leave a political landscape that is perhaps permanently unstable in France. It’s unforgivable.”

Minc, an influential businessman who has advised multiple French presidents dating back to François Mitterrand in the 1980s, was one of Macron’s earliest backers. The 76-year-old advised Macron, whose office declined to comment for this story, before his 2017 victory and during his first term, which Minc said wasn’t too bad.

But their relationship slowly deteriorated as Macron made what Minc he believes were a series of missteps and surrounded himself with “an incredibly mediocre team.”

The two stopped speaking shortly after the president called for an ill-advised snap election last year. Today, Minc is perhaps most scathing of the growing number of former Macron allies-turned-critics.

Minc’s critiques are much more personal than those of, say, Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe, two former prime ministers who spoke out against Macron last month at the height of France’s recent political crisis. Minc says Macron’s spiraling mistakes since his reelection in 2022 are rooted in narcissism, as the president believes — per Minc — that he is smart and cunning enough to solve any problem thrown his way.

“Macron is in denial of reality … He is crushed by his own psychology,” said Minc.

Others who know Macron have compared him to an inveterate gambler who is always convinced he’s just a win away from taking down the house, no matter how many losses came before.

“He thinks as usual that he is the only one who will conjure up a magic trick to find a way out of the difficulties,” said Minc.

According to Minc, Macron does not recognize that he is “the problem” and that to resolve the political turmoil in France, he needs to withdraw from domestic politics and pivot to international affairs.

Macron has, in fact, been more focused on foreign affairs after losing his parliamentary majority last year.

But his refusal to give up control over domestic politics was put on full display last month when he reappointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to lead the government just days after the premier had handed in his resignation.

Macron’s legacy

French voters appear just as unhappy as Minc with Macron’s second term, even if they don’t share the septuagenarian’s diagnosis of the president.

A poll last week found that Macron had tied his predecessor François Hollande for the crown of least popular president in the last 50 years in the aftermath of the political crisis sparked by Lecornu’s resignation.

But there may be more circles of hell to discover for a president once so formidable the international press likened him to Louis XIV, the Sun King.

Macron’s explosion onto the scene with a new centrist movement that destroyed France’s old two-party system fundamentally changed French politics. But Minc argues that in the wake of the 2024 dissolution that ended with a hung parliament, the French president is exacerbating “a splintering of the political landscape.”

Minc says Macron is neglecting his own centrist family and, despite calling for more coalition building, is refusing to make concessions to build the type of alliances with other mainstream opposition parties.

In Minc’s view, the only party that has a legitimate shot at winning the 2027 presidential election and then emerging with a parliamentary majority in the legislative contest that follows is Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.

“That would be terrifying prospect” and “dishonoring” for Macron, Minc added.

A recent Elabe opinion poll put the National Rally leaders miles ahead of more moderate leaders, with Le Pen getting 34 percent of the vote, compared with 15.5 percent for Philippe, Macron’s first prime minister, and 12.5 for Attal, the former premier who now leads Macron’s political party.

Minc worries the French haven’t fully grasped what “a fundamental change” it is to switch from a liberal democracy to an illiberal one, he said.

“They think: If they fail, we’ll just kick them out,” he said.

But U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s struggles to restore the rule of law in Poland show the dangers of flirting with illiberalism.

“The return ticket doesn’t come cheap,” he said.