Hollande's Government Faces Key Confidence Vote

The Socialist party of France is facing a crucial confidence vote in Parliament with its leader Francis Hollande's popularity at an all-time low and the country facing a worsening political and economic situation.

President Hollande will be weathering one of the worst weeks of his political career with a press meet scheduled later on Sept. 18 with him having to answer questions on inability to handle the economy with the budget deficit at its highest in the last five years and unemployment rates stuck at 10 percent.

The biggest embarrassment for him will be on the personal front with the ex-First Lady Valerie Trierweiler writing a tell all book about his affair with actress Julie Gayet.

"He is totally exposed this week," Bruno Cautres, a political analyst at Cevipof, a Paris-based research center, said in an interview to Bloomberg. "The tone for the second half of his mandate will be set by Sunday: how much support can he find in his majority, how can he come up with proposals to rescue the economy and how big of a threat would Sarkozy's candidacy be for the 2017 presidential elections."

The government is unlikely to lose the confidence vote, as the country will not want fresh elections at this time but it will expose the splits in Hollande's ruling Socialist Party, opine experts, reports the Agence France Press.

The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has urged party unity in the face of growing popularity of the  the far-right National Front's Marine Le Pen  "at the gates of power". He will be presenting the government's works to the Parliament for a vote.

"This is not the moment to call into question the legitimacy of the president, elected by the French for five years. I do not think this is the moment to call our institutions into question," Valls told the parliament last week, reports  France24.com.

The UMP party headed by ex-President Sarkozy is mired in infighting, leaving the arena open for the National Front's Le Pen to make an aggressive bid for the 2017 elections

Around 40 members of the Socialist party are threatening to abstain from voting because they feel the government has given in to the right-wing business interests. They object to the Responsibility Pact , a tax break given to companies to be supported by public spending cuts over a three year period in return for job creations in the industries.

The Socialists have 289 lawmakers in the assembly -- the precise number needed.

Hollande's approval rating is at 13 percent, the lowest since the current constitution was put in place in 1958, according to recent polls.