France’s Socialist Party (PS) government is being pummeled by criticism from the Right, the Left, and civil society more broadly. François Hollande’s government’s approval ratings hover around 13 percent, making him the Fifth Republic’s least popular president.

Hollande’s response to this unpopularity has been a concerted move to the right, strengthening a tendency initiated in August 2014. Lately he and Prime Minister Manuel Valls have taken a more authoritarian turn, maneuvering to centralize power and muzzle contestation, much of which comes from their own party.

These moves may have dire consequences in the 2017 presidential election, paving the way to victory for the far-right National Front (FN).