PARIS: French ex-president Jacques Chirac ranked the most popular politician in the country, with a support rate as high as 78 percent, according to a poll by pollster Ifop released on Tuesday.

Notwithstanding resigned two years ago and bothered recently by several trials, Chirac's popularity topped the 50-politician list with 78 percent support rate, the highest since the international market research company began this kind of survey in 2003.

Jean-Louis Borloo, French Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Planning and Development, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, ranked the second and third with similar support rates around 73 percent.