French Democracy Not Working Well, 70% Say in Poll

(Bloomberg) -- Democracy in France isn’t working well for 70 percent of respondents in an annual Opinionway poll, up 9 percentage points from a year ago.

The number of French having confidence in their local mayor rose 3 points to 58 percent, while confidence in their parliamentary representative fell 4 points to 31 percent. Confidence in the president dropped 13 points to 23 percent.

When asked what they feel about politics, 37 percent said “distrust” and 32 percent said “disgust.” Only 2 percent of those polled answered “respect” and 1 percent “enthusiasm.”

Seventy percent said they want referendums to be held on all important questions. On specific issues, 60 percent said there are too many immigrants in France, 46 percent want the return of the death penalty, and 23 percent want to get rid of gay marriage.

The poll for research group Cevipof and published in Le Figaro newspaper on Friday was carried out between Dec. 13 and 24, with 2,116 people surveyed using a quota system.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, James Regan, Phil Serafino

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