June 2 (Bloomberg) -- President Jacques Chirac's popularity plunged to a record low following the May 29 defeat of the European Union constitution in a national referendum, a TNS-Sofres poll showed.

Chirac's approval rating fell 8 points to 24 percent this month, according to a survey of 1,000 French people conducted from May 30-31 for Le Figaro Magazine. No margin of error was given. That's the lowest since TNS-Sofres started surveying voters in 1979 under President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

Chirac suffered his third electoral defeat in 14 months when voters rejected the EU treaty. The failure of Chirac to tackle a jobless rate of 10.2 percent, the highest since December 1999 contributed to voters' rejection of the treaty.

``It's the consequence of the referendum,'' said Brice Teinturier, director of political and opinion studies at TNS- Sofres in Paris, on LCI television. ``We can see the rising concern about unemployment.''

Chirac on May 31 named de Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, 51, to replace Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin in a shake-up following the defeat, promising to make job creation his new government's priority.

Unconvinced

``The government priority in the interests of French people will be employment,'' Chirac, 72, said in a speech after France rejected the referendum. Chirac failed to convince voters, and most disapproved of his choice of de Villepin as prime minister, a separate poll by Ipsos SA poll showed.

Fourteen percent found his appeal convincing, and 49 percent found it unconvincing, according to the Ipsos poll of 816 people aged 18 or more held yesterday for newspaper Le Monde and Europe 1 radio. Thirty-four percent didn't see or hear the nationally televised speech, and 3 percent declined to comment.

Forty percent disapproved of the appointment of de Villepin and 36 percent approved, the poll showed. At the same time, 56 percent approved the return of Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the majority Union for a Popular Movement party, to a so-far undisclosed Cabinet post.

Villepin is the author of a book called ``Les Cent-Jours ou l'Esprit de Sacrifice'' about the 100 days before the defeat of French Emperor Napoleon against a British-led European coalition at Waterloo in 1815. He gave himself the same amount of time to revive confidence in the government, he said in a television interview on TF1 late yesterday.

Fifty-seven percent said he will probably or certainly not manage to restore confidence in coming months, Ipsos said. Sixty- four percent called for a ``deep change'' in economic policies.

Ninety-two percent of people surveyed by TNS-Sofres said Chirac's government is doing a bad job fighting unemployment, up two points from May.

To contact the reporter on this story: Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 2, 2005 13:17 EDT