PARIS: The waning popularity of France’s president and prime minister was highlighted on Thursday in a damaging opinion poll which revealed that the powerful interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, was rated more highly as a potential president-in- waiting than either of his masters.

Mr Sarkozy was described as an “excellent” or “good” right- wing presidential candidate by 50 per cent of those polled for a survey published in the weekly Le Point magazine. President Jacques Chirac was seen as a positive runner by only 40 per cent and the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, got the hypothetical support of just 24 per cent.

The poll comes as a further blow to the leaders of France’s government, who have seen their popularity drop to an all-time low in recent weeks.

Mr Sarkozy was rated as the man “most capable of changing things in France” by 42 per cent of those polled; only nine per cent believed that Mr Chirac, who is beset by economic difficulties and mired in an unpopular social reform programme, was capable of implementing change.

The results come as welcome news for the most ambitious figure within the French government. Often referred to as “goldfinger” by the French media, because of his ability to make a success of every project he touches, Mr Sarkozy has been the government’s most prominent minister since his appointment 18 months ago. He has exploited a shrewd understanding of the media to help establish his omnipresence, appearing on news bulletins almost daily.

Since taking up his position, he has resolved the long- running dispute over the Sangatte refugee camp, repatriated asylum seekers, launched a successful crackdown on crime, dramatically reduced road accident deaths, arrested the anti-GM campaigner Jose Bove and overseen the capture of France’s most wanted terrorist in the forests of Corsica.

His hardline legislation has come as part of a deliberate strategy to seize the initiative from the National Front after its electoral successes last year.

Human rights activists were appalled by a draconian law that makes loitering in the hallways of blocks of flats an imprisonable offence, but Mr Sarkozy said it was a vital part of his campaign to reduce crime in France’s impoverished suburbs.

His legislation also made it an offence to show disrespect to “the dignity of the republic and its symbols” — making whistling during the Marseillaise a punishable act.

Until the debacle of the Corsican referendum this summer, when the government’s desire to grant a modicum of autonomy to the island was rejected, Mr Sarkozy could do no wrong, but even this failure was quickly forgotten.

The poll results are destined to increase tensions within Mr Chirac’s administration and his UMP party. Ministers have already begun jostling behind the scenes in the race to replace Mr Raffarin.

But Mr Sarkozy’s hyperactivity and public successes have made him deeply unpopular within the ranks of the UMP, and his relations with Mr Chirac have been strained in the past by his relentless ambition.

When Mr Chirac was prime minister in 1976, he spotted Mr Sarkozy, an energetic student activist of just 20, and made him his protege, grooming him for power, only to be betrayed when Mr Sarkozy backed a rival presidential candidate in 1995.—Dawn/ The Guardian News Service.