Popularity declines for French leaders
Print Edition
FRENCH Prime Minister Manuel Valls saw his approval rating drop to a new low of 36 percent this month, while Francois Hollande remained the most unpopular president in more than half a century, according to an Ifop poll yesterday.
Valls was appointed to lead the government in a cabinet reshuffle in March, after the ruling Socialists suffered a bruising defeat in local elections. His economic policy, centered on payroll tax cuts for companies meant to improve competitiveness and lift the country out of stagnation, has alienated many left-wing lawmakers.
Valls saw his approval score sink by 9 percentage points so far this month after a 6-point fall in July and a 5-point dip in June, bringing the drop to 20 points in just three months, according to the poll published in Le Journal du Dimanche.
Hollande, with an approval rating of 17 percent — down 1 point from last month — remains the most unpopular president in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, which began in 1958. Unemployment hovers near a record high and France’s economic recovery lags behind European peers.
Valls’ support level declined most sharply among center-right voters, with a 15-point drop in one month, followed by Socialist voters and far-left voters, with losses of 11 and 9 points respectively.
The poll results come days after Hollande said he would accelerate welfare and tax reforms to ease the strain on poorer households but would not back away from his business-oriented economic policy.
Also yesterday, Education Minister Benoit Hamon joined Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg in criticizing the government’s austerity measures and urging France to stand up against Germany’s credo of fiscal discipline and instead choose policies supporting household consumption.
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