Poll: Sarkozy's support slips below 50 percent after strikes, riots

Source: AP

PARIS (AP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's public support has slipped below 50 percent, according to a poll released Thursday, after protracted transport strikes and amid growing pessimism about France's future.

Forty-nine percent of respondents in a poll by TNS-Sofres said they trusted the president to resolve the country's problems, while 49 percent said they did not. A month ago, 53 percent of respondents said they trusted his abilities.

Sarkozy's approval ratings remained high for months after his election in May, but have steadily declined this fall as he has launched several difficult reform plans.

Over the past month, rail workers, civil servants and university students have staged strikes and protests against his plans to make the French economy more competitive _ and less protective _ and streamline bureaucracy.



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Why did they elect him in the first place? Maybe the French won't be fooled twice.

move the country far to the right?

That the Right wants to destroy every positive social policy ever enacted. At least the French have the courage to take to the streets and raise hell.

Geezus, it took US citizens about 6 years to catch on. And we continue, by and large, to be lethargic.

He was elected because of a general feeling of malaise with the way things had been going - which means he had to make changes. It's going to take time to know whether they are for good or bad.

Compare him to our Democratic Congress, which has been afraid to make changes.

Like all of us, he deserves to be judged by performance than by ideology. Check back in six months.

butthat is only because French BushPutinism is in it's infancy there.

Stop it before it's too late, France!

Say, exactly what kind of voting systems does France have? Maybe they have recently undergone a "privatization" of voting, too.