PARIS, Sept 23: Francois Hollande’s popularity has plummeted just four months after he took office, according to the latest opinion poll.

The survey found only 43 per cent of French voters were happy with the Socialist president. The drop of 11 percentage points is one of the worst for a leader in more than 50 years since the start of the fifth republic.

The poll by the Ifop organisation for the Journal du Dimanche found 56 per cent of those asked said they were not happy with the president. The Ifop findings were backed up by two other opinion polls.

Asked about his disastrous ratings during a press conference with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Saturday, Hollande replied: “I ask to be judged on results and these will take time.

“We find ourselves in a difficult situation in Europe. There’s a crisis, weak growth, unemployment ... my duty is to ensure that by the end of my mandate France is in a better state than it was at the beginning.” He added that the start of a presidential mandate was always “a time when expectations were high”.

“During a term in office there are highs and lows, but what counts is that the goal is set as well as the means to achieve it, and the force we put into getting results,” he added.

Frederic Dabi, the deputy director general of Ifop, said increased taxes and Hollande’s plan to give foreigner residents the right to vote in local elections were the main reasons given by those polled for their dissatisfaction with Hollande.

Hollande went on television a fortnight ago to restate his intention to introduce a 75 per cent “supertax” band for those earning more than Û1m a year.

Only Charles de Gaulle in 1962 and his Gaullist successor Jacques Chirac in 2005 suffered a greater fall in popularity.

De Gaulle lost 13 percentage points after the Evian Accords that put an end to the war in Algeria and led to the former French colony’s independence. Chirac’s popularity fell by 12 points after the French voted against the European constitution.

By arrangement with the Guardian