PARIS -- France has not finished paying for the August heat wave and its 10,000 deaths. Vegetable and beef prices have risen, tourism has declined, forest fires have devastated wide areas and the financial impact on the budget has postponed an economic upswing.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin already figures among the main casualties of the dramatic summer. He didn't understand quickly enough the magnitude of the challenges he had to face and remained in his mountain resort, without even thinking of addressing the nation by radio or television. Two or three days would have been better spent coordinating aid and visiting victims.

The result has been a dramatic loss in popularity since the beginning of the year when he repeatedly spoke of the "France of below" -- the modest people he pledged to bring to the forefront of political life. Public-approval polls on his performance couldn't be more discouraging: from a rare ceiling of 61 percent in December 2002 to 33 percent recently. True, four of his predecessors under the now 45-year-old 5th Republic had known worse returns, but it's difficult to imagine how he can substantially improve his image.