Add another impressive achievement to Jack's legacy.

VOTER SUPPORT FOR CHIRAC AND HIS PM SLIPS EVEN FURTHER: POLL

PARIS April 23, 2006 (AFP) - Voter dissatisfaction in France with President Jacques Chirac has hit a record low as he continues to suffer from a recent jobs law that provoked nationwide protests, according to a new poll.

The survey, published in Sunday's Journal du Dimanche newspaper and conducted by the Ifop institute, shows Chirac has support of only 29 percent of the electorate, with 70 percent unhappy with him. His prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, has also taken a beating and now has only 24 percent support and 74 percent against him.

The decline for Chirac -- 10 points lower than for the last survey taken a month ago, which also showed a slide -- shows "the highest level of dissatisfaction in the entire history of the 5th Republic" (ie. since 1958), the newspaper noted.

Many of the 1,904 adults questioned in the survey carried out over the past week said Chirac had been inexcusably absent during the crisis.

For Chirac, who had made tackling joblessness one of his priorities, the record unpopularity threatens to cap his decade-long legacy at the head of France should he step down next year as he is widely expected to do.

For a presidency destitute of successes, well, at least this is something for the record books. Jack will become one of those footnotes that is fished up every now and again for color commentary -- or by future troubled governments to compare themselves favorably.

Such public falls are the stuff of deathless myths. For example, who would remember the short-lived presidency of Paul Deschanel but for "son petit accident"?

PFFT (What is this?): Historic achievement 4 | Myth in the making 3 | Rayonnement français 0