French fall out of love with smitten Sarkozy

By Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicholas Sarkozy might have just got re-married, but his love affair with the French electorate appears well and truly over.

An opinion poll published on Monday said Sarkozy's popularity rating plunged 13 points in January to 41 percent on the back of widespread voter discontent over the president's handling of the economy and the rising cost of living.

"It is a slump of rare proportions," independent pollsters LH2 said in a commentary on their survey.

The poll was published just two days after Sarkozy married his girlfriend Carla Bruni, a supermodel-turned-popstar who had been dating the president for three months.

"The French and Sarkozy ... Divorce," left-wing daily Liberation said in a front page headline, commenting on the monthly poll, carried out on February 1 and 2 among 1,300 people.

LH2 said Sarkozy's high-profile romance with Bruni, which was played out across the French press, was poorly perceived by voters who thought his celebrity-drenched private life had dented the dignity of his office.

"He is vulgar, rude and not in the right role as president of the republic," a leftist sympathizer was quoted as saying in the LH2 survey. A rightist voter said: "He is seen as a popstar when that isn't at all his job."

In all, 76 percent of those questioned disapproved of the way his private life had been put on display for all to see.

Perhaps responding to such criticism, Saturday's unannounced wedding at the Elysee Palace was extremely low key, with not even the official presidential photographer present to record the event -- let alone the paparazzi.

MIRRORING CHIRAC

Monday's poll followed another survey released last week that showed Sarkozy's confidence rating down eight percentage points in January to 41 percent, the lowest level since he took office last May and down from a high of 65 registered in July.

LH2's chief pollster Francois Miquet-Marty said the only precedent for such a dive in support came in 1996, when backing for Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac fell off a cliff following strikes over his doomed bid to reform pensions.

The economy also lay at the heart of Sarkozy's problems, with 84 percent of people saying the president had not done enough to tackle higher prices and boost the standard of living.

During last year's election campaign Sarkozy promised to be the "president of purchasing power". Since taking office he has introduced tax cuts that critics say helped primarily the rich and offered fiscal benefits to encourage overtime.

In a news conference last month he said he couldn't do any more for workers, arguing that state coffers were empty.