Hollande poll popularity drops to 46%

French President Francois Hollande’s approval rating has dipped to 46 per cent three months after winning office, pollster Ifop said on Saturday, suggesting a weak economy had cut short the Socialist leader’s honeymoon period. The survey showed Hollande — who won office on May 6 with nearly 52 per cent of votes — had not benefited from the post-electoral bounce enjoyed by his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. Sarkozy’s approval rating climbed to 65 per cent in the weeks after his victory. However, Hollande took office amid gloomier economic prospects, with unemployment at a 13-year high of 10 per cent and France expected to slip into recession this year. The Ifop poll, published in right-leaning newspaper Le Figaro, said that 51 per cent of those questioned thought France was changing for the worse, with just 17 per cent convinced it was changing for the better. In 2007 after the election of Sarkozy, 45 per cent of those questioned said France was changing for the better. “In this very pessimistic climate and with regard to the very small room for manoeuvre which exists, the confidence ratings for Hollande and his government are consistently below 50 per cent,” said Jerome Fourquet of Ifop. Hollande has insisted his government will meet France’s deficit targets of 4.6 per cent of GDP this year, obliging him to unveil a 7.2 billion euro package of tax rises, mostly on wealthy households and large corporations.  To meet next year’s 3 per cent target, he will need to find some 33 billion euros in tax rises and savings. Nonetheless, the survey of 1,004 people showed that 57 per cent of those questioned thought Hollande was fulfilling his campaign promises. His decision to cut his own salary and those of his cabinet by nearly one third was backed by 82 per cent of voters. The government’s decision to partially undo Sarkozy’s rise in the retirement age for those who started work early in life — returning it to 60 from 62 — won approval from 71 percent of those polled. Sixty-seven per cent welcomed his announcement of a higher wealth tax on rich households. Meanwhile, the European Union is closely watching how France expels members of the Roma community to ensure their removal is consistent with the bloc’s rules on the free movement of people, a spokeswoman for its executive arm said on Friday. Police have evicted hundreds of Roma from makeshift camps this week and repatriated dozens to Romania as Hollande follows the previous administration’s policy of expelling illegal immigrants in the summer. European Rights and Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding called France’s policy of expelling Roma a “disgrace.” The move has attracted fresh scrutiny from the EU’s executive arm, two years after it criticised France over a crackdown on illegal Roma camps launched under former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. “We are monitoring the situation,” European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told Reuters. The Commission, in charge of enforcing EU treaties, has requested further information from the French authorities on the expulsions to ensure they are being conducted in compliance with EU rules, she added. France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls defended the camp evacuations as necessary due to health risks, saying that immigrants were only being repatriated after an individual evaluation of their legal status in France. From:Gulftoday