Former president Adamkus Lithuania's most popular public figure; Grybauskaite approval rating falls

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius and the former president Valdas Adamkus top the list of the country's most popular public figures. Although 64 percent of people assessed Grybauskaite favourably, she also recorded the biggest drop in approval: a fall of 9 percentage points. The popularity of MEP Rolandas Paksas, the leader of the party Order and Justice, also fell substantially, by 6 percentage points.

According to the poll, which was commissioned by ELTA news agency and carried out from Dec 12-22 last year by pollster Baltijos Tyrimai, there have been no major changes. Adamkus received the highest score of any public figure (assessed favourably by 68 percent of the polled), followed by Grybauskaite (64 percent), Butkevicius (60 percent) and social democrat MEP Vilija Blinkeviciute (52 percent).

According to the poll, the 5 public figures who were the least popular are the Chairman of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania MEP Valdemar Tomasevski (73 percent), the Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of the Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) Andrius Kubilius (71 percent); the Chairman of the Supreme Council - Reconstituent Seimas and Honorary Chairman of the TS-LKD, Vytautas Landsbergis (65 percent); Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius (60 percent); and the Honorary Chairman of the Labour Party, Viktor Uspaskikh (60 percent).

According to Associate Professor Dr Tomas Janeliunas, lecturer at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University, a fall in Grybauskaite's ratings was observed during the presidential election. It is obvious that she is now less popular compared to the beginning of her first presidential term in 2009, he said.

"I would associate the change with people's expectations or slight disappointment. Every time politicians who are at first greatly trusted and create great expectations fail to 100 percent satisfy those expectations. Naturally, some people lower their expectations or feel disappointed in the politician. And the presidential election campaign showed that it was more difficult for Grybauskaite, especially as there were more candidates. The fact that a run-off voting round was also needed demonstrated that there was more disappointment," Janeliunas told the ELTA news agency.

Talking about Paksas's ratings, the political scientist said that Paksas has been appearing in national politics, although his attempt to return to the top positions, by playing the presidential election card, failed completely.

"We were reminded again that he was accused and punished baselessly - allegedly. This simply did not bring any major support and I imagine that people have written him off as a top-level politician because at the moment he is only a Member of the European Parliament, as he has been for the last few years. Even though he leads the party, he is being criticised by its members. Naturally, disappointment in the leader is growing even among Order and Justice's supporters," said the political expert.

The political scientist believes that Grybauskaite's ratings have stabilised. People do not have major expectations of her, she is active in foreign policy and her level of support has remained stable.

"Her ratings will most probably remain stable, unless unexpected incidents or scandals occur," Janeliunas predicted.

The political scientist called European Commissioner Andriukaitis a phenomenon as he was well evaluated among the social democrats. The scientist said that Andriukaitis strongly supported social-democratic ideas when he was minister of healthcare, even though he was criticised by healthcare experts and politicians. The public met his stance positively.

As regards Parliament Speaker Loreta Grauziniene, the political scientist said that over the last year to six months people had got used to her being in this position. Even though her appointment was met with criticism at first, especially in the media, she is no longer being criticised, nor has she been involved in scandals or misunderstandings. Even the president no longer ignores the the Seimas speaker so obviously - she was invited to the State Defence Council and participated in bilateral meetings.