es, it’s very, very, very uncommon to see a French president with a 14% approval rating, and this is what Hollande has been enduring for many months. And it’s quite difficult to win an election when your presidency has hovered between 14% and 20% approval for so long.
At the same time, Hollande was clear from the beginning that one of the basic ways of judging his mandate will be how the economy is performing after his five years in office. And the economy, for the last 3-5 months, has been doing a little better. The question now is: will the economy improve and unemployment fall in a regular way over the next year?