Most French people do not want Francois Hollande to seek a second term in the country's 2017 presidential election, a poll showed on Sunday, in the latest blow to the president whose popularity is already at record lows. The poll showed that 85 percent of those questioned did not want Hollande to run for president again, with 50 percent blaming him for not delivering on his promises.
The poll by IFOP for French weekly Le Journal Du Dimanche was conducted between September 5 and September 6 and was based on a survey of 988 people.
The poll caps a week of bad news for Hollande, including the publication of a tell-all book by his former partner Valerie Trierweiler that described the Socialist president as being dismissive of the poor. Hollande has lost support even among many left-wing voters largely due to frustration over his handling of the economy, where unemployment is close to a record high above 10 percent and growth nearly flat.
Hollande said at the Nato summit on Friday he would stay in office until the end of his mandate despite the record-low poll ratings. The IFOP poll followed another on Friday by TNS-Sofres giving Hollande an approval rating at a record low of 13 percent in August, further securing his status as the most unpopular president in France since World War Two.