PARIS: Two crushing failures over Europe have left French President Jacques Chirac looking impotent two years before the end of his presidency, his popularity in freefall and the economy offering no respite.

The European Union’s failure to agree a long-term budget was a defeat for Chirac, who lost a bruising battle with British Prime Minister Tony Blair three weeks after French voters snubbed him by rejecting the EU’s constitution on May 29.

Chirac, 72, also has little to encourage him on the economy.

Opposition politicians and political commentators are increasingly talking about a “fin de regne” — the end of Chirac’s reign, or grip on power, after 10 years as president.

An opinion poll by the Ifop research group for Sunday’s newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche showed Chirac’s popularity close to all-time lows, with only 28 per cent satisfied with his performance and a record 70 per cent dissatisfied.

“The fall is unprecedented and the record of discontent unsurpassed,” said Ifop consultant Jean-Luc Parodi, reflecting on a 12 percentage point fall in support and an 11 point increase in dissatisfaction in the past month.

He said one of the main reasons for discontent cited in the survey of 1,884 people from June 9 to 17 was what was seen as an inadequate response by Chirac to the May 29 referendum.

“First of all you find people demanding a logical conclusion to what they saw as a sanction vote — calling for the president to resign...at least a dissolution of parliament,” Parodi said.

Chirac tried to reassert himself by isolating Blair over the EU’s 2007-2013 budget last week and forcing him to accept a compromise over the annual rebate Britain won in 1984.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder backed Chirac, but Blair hit back by offering concessions only if the EU reviewed its whole budget — including large EU subsidies to French farmers.

Chirac balked at this. Blair’s refusal to budge left Chirac looking weak and blunted the German-French alliance that has long been the motor driving European integration.

The budget battle was a setback in the one area — foreign policy — where Chirac has consistently won praise at home, notably over his opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.

“We saw that in his preferred area ... the president no longer has the knack,” Le Journal du Dimanche wrote.

The blow is particularly bad for Chirac because Schroeder, his main ally, faces a federal election and the conservatives who are likely to replace him appear disillusioned with France.

“This new failure on Europe risks affecting his credibility on the world arena and having the ricochet effect of further weakening him on the domestic scene,” Le Monde newspaper said.

Chirac’s response to the rejection of the EU charter was to appoint an ally, Dominique de Villepin, as prime minister and bring back a rival, popular centre-right party chief Nicolas Sarkozy, as interior minister and number two in the government.

The Ifop poll showed 44 per cent of respondents are satisfied with Villepin as prime minister. But Sarkozy is now so powerful that Chirac’s critics refer to him as a “second prime minister”.

“I sometimes ask what’s happening in this country ... We have two prime ministers and no longer have a president,” political commentator Olivier Duhamel said on Saturday.

Chirac has not said whether he will seek a third term but he cannot be pleased by the rise of a man who wants to succeed him. He is unlikely to quit, especially as he would lose immunity from prosecution in several cases of alleged corruption.

—Reuters