French President Popularity at Record Low: Poll

PARIS (Press TV) – French President Francois Hollande's popularity has plunged to a record low of 13 percent in September, a new poll shows.

Date: 21 September 2014 - 20:50

News ID: ۵۳۴۹

The survey of 2,000 people, conducted by Ifop for French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, showed that support for the French leader reached 13 percent in September, down by four percent from the previous month.
The study marks Hollande's lowest approval rating since he became the country’s president in May 2012. The poll also showed that Hollande is the country’s least popular president of modern times. At his lowest point, the popularity of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy stood at 28 percent.
The Ifop poll also revealed that the popularity of Hollande’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls slipped 1 percentage point to 35 percent this month, following a steady decline from 58 percent when he took office more than five months ago.
An earlier survey by Le Figaro magazine showed that 97 percent of French voters are against Hollande’s candidacy in the 2017 presidential election.
The results of the Ifop poll were released amid public outcry in France against the Hollande government’s failure to deal with economic woes and rising unemployment in the country.
Official figures showed last month that France’s unemployment rate rose for the nine consecutive month in July, with 3,424,000 people out of work, despite Hollande’s earlier pledge to bring down the rate.
France, Europe’s second-biggest economy, is grappling with political and economic crises seen as the worst since Hollande took power more than two years ago.