SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
To France now, where just five months after President Francois Hollande took office, many French now wonder if he's delivering what they voted for. The new president's ratings have plummeted and his once-lauded steady approach has been criticized as dithering. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley says even his supporters have taken to the streets.
CROWD: (Chanting in French)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: These left-wing protesters shouting resistance in the streets of Paris this month voted for Hollande five months ago. But now they say he's betrayed them. They're protesting against the European fiscal treaty, approved this week by the Socialist-dominated French parliament. On the campaign trail, Hollande promised to renegotiate the austerity treaty to add a growth component. Protesters here say he didn't change one comma of it. Now, Hollande insists the country must cut spending and reduce its deficit. Those are the same goals as the unpopular president they voted out of office, says 18-year-old Virgil LeBlanc.
VIRGIL LEBLANC: (Through Translator) The French voted just a few months ago to change the direction the country was heading. But our efforts were obviously pointless because Hollande is pushing the country toward austerity, just Nicolas Sarkozy.
BEARDSLEY: The title of leading news magazine L'Express reads: Look Who's Been Cuckold by Hollande. First among them, it says, are civil servants. One of Hollande's main campaign promises was to hire tens of thousands of new teachers and police officers. What he didn't say was that he'd shrink the size of other ministries to do so. Granted, keeping campaign promises in the middle of a Europe-wide recession and debt crisis was never going to be easy.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIRECRACKERS POPPING)
BEARDSLEY: French steelworkers welded themselves a plant slated to be closed. An auto union set off fireworks as they tried to storm the Paris car show this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN HONKING)
BEARDSLEY: An angry demonstration by car workers out front of the Paris car show, which they shut down. They're trying to break in through the gates. They're very angry about plant closures and they're very disappointed in the Hollande government. They say it's the exact same thing as Sarkozy. He's continuing politics of supporting big banks and capitalism and nothing for the workers. Peugeot Citroen worker Alain Blazzard says it's outrageous that the company plans to close a major plant and lay off 8,000 workers. And that Hollande is doing nothing about it.
ALAN BLAZZARD: (Through Translator) Peugeot decided to pay out six billion euros in dividends to stockholders over the last decade instead of investing in new markets to develop the company. And now we - the ones who actually make the cars - are paying for it.
BEARDSLEY: The anger against Hollande is not just over the economy. The ecologists are furious after a member of his government called nuclear power an industry of the future, contrary to Hollande's campaign promise to reduce it. And Hollande has taken flack for his inaction on the world stage. Even flamboyant, leftist philosopher Bernard Henri Levy has piled on. After convincing Sarkozy to bomb Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, Levy says he's deeply disappointed that Hollande has done nothing about Syria's dictator Bashir al-Assad. In just five months Hollande's ratings have dropped from 61 to 40 percent - a record plunge for a first-term president. And a poll out this week shows that more French people would rather see Sarkozy back in office. It's not just voters on the far left who are disappointed by Hollande.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (French spoken)
BEARDSLEY: The cafe scene in the Bastille neighborhood of Paris is a favorite hangout of well-heeled Socialists, known as Caviar Gauche. These upper-middle class Hollande supporters aren't thrilled to see their taxes going up, but it's more a feeling that nothing is happening, says consultant Monique Desgouttes.
MONIQUE DESGOUTTES: (Through Translator) Hollande's big mistake was to cast himself as the opposite of Nicolas Sarkozy in every way. Because now people are saying he doesn't even have a plan and it was better before when there was at least energy and action.
BEARDSLEY: Even Hollande's slogan, a normal president, once a positive contrast to Sarkozy's frenzied-ness, has become a badge of mediocrity. But Desgouttes believes the French need to give Hollande more time to prove himself. After all, she says, running a country is not some sort of theatrical show, and a president shouldn't have to do a trapeze act every day to prove himself. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR news, Paris.
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