Hollande ‘most unpopular president in 30 years’

French president François Hollande was under the cosh on Friday as a new poll revealed he is the most unpopular head of state in 30 years.

Published: 1 March 2013 12:55 CET

Hollande 'most unpopular president in 30 years'

François Hollande out and about. Photo:AFP

Hollande’s boost in opinion polls seen during the early days of France’s intervention in Mali appears to have well and truly gone flat.

A new poll by French polling agency TNS Sofres for the right leaning Le Figaro newspaper revealed the Socialist Party president only has the confidence of 30 percent of the population – a drop of five percent since January.

That represents the lowest percentage for a president in the tenth month of office since 1981 when fellow Socialist François Mitterrand was in power.

According to the survey the fall in popularity of Hollande is dramatic with 66 percent of the population now saying they have no confidence in their leader – an increase of five percent since last month.

According to the Emmanuel Riviere, department director of TNS Sofres, the slump can be put down to France’s ongoing economic woes.

After a lull during the Mali war “the current social and economic problems are back at the top of the news,” he said. Rising unemployment and on-going austerity were factors “feeding the dissatisfaction of voters,” Riviere added.

Other polls, however, do not suggest such a dramatic slump in the confidence French people have with Hollande although they reflect a similar trend.

According to sources quoted by Europe1 radio Hollande will try and get out and about more in a bid to stem his flagging popularity.

The sources claim he will change the style of his excursions across France so that he stays in a place over night and tries to meet more of the electorate.

“There will be no big speeches, no grand themes, just simple and frequent visits,” François Rebsamen, head of the Socialists in the Senate told Les Echos newspaper.

Around 1000 people from across the country took part in the TNS Sofres poll, which was carried out on February 24/25.

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“I don’t believe in the model… which would involve finding third countries on the African continent or elsewhere where we’d send people who arrive on our soil illegally, who don’t come from these countries,” Macron said.

“We’re creating a geopolitics of cynicism which betrays our values and will build new dependencies, and which will prove completely ineffective,” he added in a wide-ranging speech on the future of the European Union at Paris’ Sorbonne University.

British MPs on Tuesday passed a law providing for undocumented asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and where they would stay if the claims succeed.

The law is a flagship policy for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which badly lags the opposition Labour party in the polls with an election expected within months.

Britain pays Paris to support policing of France’s northern coast, aimed at preventing migrants from setting off for perilous crossings in small boats.

Five people, including one child, were killed in an attempted crossing Tuesday, bringing the toll on the route so far this year to 15 – already higher than the 12 deaths in 2023.

But Macron had warm words for London when he praised the two NATO allies’ bilateral military cooperation, which endured through the contentious years of Britain’s departure from the EU.

“The British are deep natural allies (for France) and the treaties that bind us together… lay a solid foundation,” he said.

“We have to follow them up and strengthen them, because Brexit has not affected this relationship,” Macron added.

The president also said France should seek similar “partnerships” with fellow EU members.