France's Hollande sees improvement in approval rating

Popularity of French President Francois Hollande edged 3 percent higher in November to 21 percent, a rise from an all-time low which is likely to give impetus to the struggling Socialist head of state in midterm, a poll showed on Thursday.

An LH2 survey said more Socialist supporters have positive opinions of their leader after his TV appearance last week. He collected 49 percent of satisfied votes in the Left camp, up by 7 percentage points from last month.

With an approval rating up to 21 percent, Hollande remained one of the worst compared to his predecessors at the same point in their terms, the poll added.

In a 90-minute question-and-answer session on prime time TFI, widely seen as an attempt to bridge the gap with discontented public, the head of state, last Thursday, noted that "there is work to do" to put eurozone's second-largest economy on recovery path.

"I'll reform my country till the very end, to make it stronger ... My role is to protect the French, I'll take the country back to being a Social Republic by 2017," he stressed.

After a short honeymoon at the Elysee Palace, Hollande saw his popularity sliding to a record low, on successive broken promises to lower unemployment, promote dim economy and honor his financial commitments.

LH2 poll questioned 1,083 respondents on Nov. 12 and 13. Enditem