French President Jacques Chirac's popularity has sunk to its lowest level in seven years because of fears over the economy and Turkey's bid to join the European Union, an opinion poll showed on Sunday. The poll published by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper also showed Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's popularity was at its lowest ebb since he took office in May 2002. The survey underlined the problems Chirac faces convincing the French public of the merits of Turkey's EU candidacy and indicated that many French people are yet to feel the benefits of France's economic recovery. The poll by research group Ifop showed 41 percent of the 1,905 respondents questioned between Oct. 14 and 22 were satisfied with Chirac, his worst rating since 1997. Only 29 percent were satisfied with Raffarin. The newspaper put the drop in popularity down to mounting costs such as fuel prices, job cuts, high taxes, fears about a wave of Turkish immigrants into France and France's failure to secure the release of two French hostages held in Iraq. "The most serious thing is that perhaps no one visible, unique measure is at the origin of this crisis but more an accumulation of dissatisfactions and anxieties... which create a harmful atmosphere," it said. The poll was more bad news for the government following defeats in regional election in March and European Parliament elections in June. The government has vowed to tackle the jobless rate, which is hovering just under 10 percent and is far above the eurozone average. It has also made economic growth a priority and expects it to be 2.5 percent this year and about the same in 2005. But household heating bills have risen substantially across Europe as oil prices surge -- Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has offered tax breaks to fisherman, farmers and truckers to avoid fuel price protests. And Chirac's long-standing support for Turkey's entry into the EU has left him isolated, particularly as the leadership of his own ruling conservative party opposes it. Turkey is unlikely to join the 25-nation bloc for more than a decade but opinion polls show a large majority of French people oppose its accession, fearing Turks would take French jobs and reduce France's influence in the Union. The rating slump precedes an election next month for the leadership of Chirac's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. Sarkozy is expected to win the election, and has agreed to give up the Finance Ministry if he wins. Raffarin has hinted he could make a big cabinet reshuffle when Sarkozy departs. The chances of this would appear to increase if the government's popularity remains low. Chirac had a 43 percent approval rating in the Ifop poll in September and Raffarin had 31 percent.
