Hollande rating falls even further: French President's approval score dips below 20%



Dropping: A poll revealed the French president has dropped three points since October

Francois Hollande’s approval rating has fallen to 20 per cent, the worst for a French president since 1958.

An Ifop poll, published by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, showed a fall of three points from October.

In December 1991, socialist president Francois Mitterrand sank to a low of 22 percent, while Hollande’s conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy’s popularity hit a low of 28 percent in 2011.

But the conservative or far-right opposition would do no better if they were in charge according to the new poll.

Only 25 percent of 1,003 people polled said they expected the conservative UMP party would do better and only 19 percent said the far-right National Front would do better.

Fifty-five percent said the UMP would not do better or worse, 19 percent the UMP would do worse.

The Journal du Dimanche said that the poll answers showed the French, besides feeling despair about the economic crisis, were unhappy about Hollande’s indecisive leadership style.

It said that many respondents cited Hollande’s handling of the case of a deported immigrant schoolgirl.



After weeks of intense media coverage of the affair, Hollande’s compromise offer - criticised by all sides - was to let the teenager return to France but without her family.

No better: But figures show Marine Le Pen's far right National Front would receive just as poor a reaction

Hollande, who arrives in Israel for a state visit on Sunday, saw his ratings slide soon after taking office in May 2012 as unemployment remains stubbornly high and the economy continues to struggles.