PARIS - The French are bleaker about their country's future than at any time since 2005, a new poll showed on Saturday, with 68 percent saying they are "rather" or "very" pessimistic, the highest level ever in the initial months of a new presidency.
The poll's findings jibed with a survey released last weekend which found that Socialist President Francois Hollande's approval rating had slipped to 54 percent, continuing a steady decline since he took office in May.The level of pessimism fell just short of an all-time high of 70 percent registered in August 2005, when the poll was created near the end of Jacques Chirac's government.
