Populariteit Chirac gedaald na mislukte EU-top (en)

French President Jacques Chirac is continuing to see a drop in his popularity with a poll showing 70 percent are dissatisfied with their leader.

An IFOP poll published in Sunday's Journal du Dimanche shows that only 28 percent of French citizens said they are satisfied with him in June, a drop from 40 percent in May.

Mr Chirac's drop in the popularity stakes emerged particularly in the run-up to the French referendum on the EU constitution.

The failure of EU leaders to find an agreement on the EU's budget last week is likely to deepen Mr Chirac's unpopularity, as French media present the summit as a clash between Mr Chirac and UK prime minister Tony Blair.

And Mr Chirac is the one to have lost the battle, according to French papers.

The French president was weakened and isolated, after the French No to the EU Constitution, and could not impose his vision of Europe, writes the left-wing daily Liberation.

By contrast, British prime minister Tony Blair is the one who presented "a modern vision of a 21st-century Europe", adds the paper.

And on Thursday (16 June), just before the start of the summit, Liberation headlined that Mr Chirac was "the sick man of Europe".

The two biggest French dailies, Le Monde and Le Figaro also present the EU summit as a "personal clash" between the French and British leaders, with Le Monde concluding that the French president will be "weakened" for a long time after the summit.

Mr Blair might be "a bit" isolated, but he appears to be the new strong man of Europe.

Jacques Chirac, on the other hand, comes home empty-handed, writes Le Monde.

A call for unity

And as Jacques Chirac appears to weaken politically, French European affairs minister Catherine Colonna on Sunday (19 June) appealed for more solidarity in Europe.

She said that the summit was not a success for anybody, not even for Mr Blair, and insisted that "we need to think together, and debate openly and in a consensual way, on what we want for Europe in five years, ten years, 30 or 50 years".

"We have to define together, and I mean together, all 25, what the Europe of tomorrow could be. All together and not at the will of a few", she told France Inter radio.

However, she reiterated the French position of blaming the British prime minister for the failure to reach a budget agreement.

"Some have kept their national egos, while it is only the European spirit that enables us to find the solutions together", she said.