News polls published on Monday showed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy`s popularity has fallen to a new low, just less than one year ahead of the country` s presidential election scheduled for 2012.

According to a survey conducted by pollster Ipsos for the French magazine Le Point, only 29 percent of the French people approved of the work of Sarkozy, while 68 percent held unfavorable views. Some three percent of the surveyed people declined to comment.

This was a fresh low record of public support for the French president, who took office in 2007.

Before the survey was conducted last week via telephone by questioning nearly 1,000 French adults, Sarkozy`s approval rating was 31 percent in a February poll also conducted by Ipsos.

Also on Monday, another poll by the Institute LH2 for NouvelObs. com showed that the popularity of Sarkozy dropped by two percentage points in April to 30 percent compared with the previous month. Sixty-six percent of the French people had a negative opinion on the head of state, according to the poll. (*)

Source: ANTARA