France: Low Support For Sarkozy Reforms

Only 29 percent of French people polled said they approved of the reform measures announced last Sunday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a percentage that corresponds to the outgoing President’s low popularity, a survey indicated Wednesday.

Sarkozy is expected to announce he will run for a second term before March 16, but he has so far argued he is absorbed with managing the economic crisis and assuming his responsibilities and has no intention of starting a re-election campaign yet.

On Sunday, in a nation-wide address, Sarkozy said he was raising sales tax by 1.6 percent to 21.2 percent and was also increasing capital gains taxes by 2.0 percent on certain investments. He also promised to implement a 0.1 percent transaction tax on financial operations by August in an effort to curb speculation on markets.

But the President also said he would cut employers’ pay roll taxes and promote jobs for young people and give a boost to construction to help the troubled housing sector.

Nevertheless, 64 percent of French people polled by TNS-Sofres for Canal+ television did not agree with Sarkozy’s claim that the measure would help promote growth and jobs.

Only 29 percent said they believed this would be successful and 7.0 percent had no opinion one way or the other.