Only 34% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their new head of government. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

France’s new Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who is still scrambling to name his government before Christmas, faced a fresh challenge Sunday (December 22, 2024): a historically low poll rating.

Even before he has properly started his job, a new poll carried out by Ifop for the French weekly Journal du Dimanche found 66% of respondents were unhappy with his performance.

Also Read: On French President Macron and his politics

Only 34% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their new head of government.

Going back decades to 1959, Ifop said it had not seen such a low rating for a Prime Minister getting started in the job.

They questioned 2,004 people representative of the French population between December 11 and 18.

Mr. Bayrou is the sixth Prime Minister of President Emmanuel Macron’s mandate, and the fourth of 2024. Each has served for a shorter period than the last one.

Mr. Bayrou’s predecessor Michel Barnier was France’s shortest-serving premier, lasting only three months.

Appointed on December 13, Mr. Bayrou has yet to submit his cabinet choices to Macron.

But he told France 2 television on Friday (December 20, 2024) that he hoped his new team would be finalised over the weekend or “in any case before Christmas”.

Noumea, France:

Several buildings, including a police station and a town hall, were set on fire in New Caledonia overnight, authorities said Monday, as the French Pacific territory was hit by a fresh surge of unrest.

“The night was… marked by unrest throughout the mainland and on the island of Pins and Mare, requiring the intervention of numerous reinforcements: with attacks on the police, arson and roadblocks”, the High Commission, which represents the French state in the archipelago, said in a press release.

Rioting and looting erupted in New Caledonia in mid-May over an electoral reform plan that Indigenous Kanak people feared would leave them in a permanent minority, putting independence hopes definitively out of reach. 

The unrest left nine dead and damage estimated at more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion).

The French government responded by sending more than 3,000 troops and police to the territory almost 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) from Paris.

In Dumbea, north of the capital Noumea, the municipal police station and a garage were set alight. Four armoured vehicles intervened, an AFP journalist said.

Several fires broke out in the Ducos and Magenta districts of Noumea, while police and separatists clashed in Bourail, resulting in one injury, AFP learned.

The High Commission reported “several fires were extinguished”, particularly in Ducos and Magenta, adding that “the premises and vehicles of the municipal police and private vehicles” were set on fire.

“Abuses, destruction and attempted fires were also committed in several places in Paita,” in the Noumea suburbs, added the High Commission, which said police in Mare had also been attacked.

On Monday morning, many schools were closed due to the renewed unrest.

On Saturday, seven independence activists linked to a group accused of orchestrating the riots last month were indicted and sent to mainland France for pre-trial detention.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)