PARIS: French President François Hollande’s approval rating remained unchanged following a news conference to announce economic reforms and after reports of an affair with actor Julie Gayet put his private life in the spotlight, a poll showed.
Of those interviewed, 22 percent were satisfied with Hollande as president, unchanged from a month earlier, according to the Ifop poll carried out for Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper by phone between 10 January and 18 January. Ifop surveyed 1,950 people aged 18 and over.
The Socialist leader’s ratings have improved slightly since hitting a record low of 15 percent in one November poll. But they remain far below those of former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy at the same period in his 2007-2012 presidency. The Guardian
