FRENCH SUPPORT FOR HOLLANDE FALLS TO 25 PERCENT

      Paris, 11 Jumadil Akhir 1434/21 April 2013 (MINA) – French President Francois Hollande’s popularity rating has dropped by six points to hit a new low of 25 percent, a report says.
      France’s Le Journal Du Dimanche reported the rating on Sunday according to a poll conducted by the Ifop Institute, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
      The survey shows that the 1,875 participants believed that Hollande and his government put a focus on non-priority subjects such as the legalization of same-sex marriage.
      In addition, the respondents complained about Hollande’s lack of authority in the case of the disgraced former Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac as well as how careless the president was when he chose to appoint him.
      The 25-percent rating for April is less than the 28.6 percent Hollande received in the first round of the presidential election a year ago.
      The score is worse than his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy’s lowest ever result as well as the lowest approval rating since the start of the fifth and since the current constitution was introduced on October 4, 1958.
      The survey also showed that discontent was increasing within Hollande’s own supporters with only 64 percent backing him in April – a 13-percent loss from March reading of 77 percent.
      Moreover, the survey revealed that his socialist party member Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault received a loss of six points to 30 percent in April.
      The falling popularity of the socialist leaders is linked to France’s economic despair and the soaring number of unemployed.
      On March 19, the French government was hit by a scandal when Cahuzac resigned as the country’s budget minister.
      On April 2, Cahuzac was charged with laundering the proceeds of tax fraud after he admitted to having an undeclared Swiss bank account with about 600,000 euros (about 776,000 US dollars) for the past 20 years. (T/P09/E1)

 Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).