Lithuania's president tops popularity rating

VILNIUS – Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda tops the popularity rating in the country, according to the latest survey by Vilmorus for the Lietuvos Rytas daily, published on Saturday.

It shows 73.7 percent of those surveyed had a positive opinion about Nauseda in July, compared to 64.7 percent in June.

"The negative assessment stands at only 5.2 percent, which is a very good result. President Nauseda had a very similar rating as Valdas Adamkus had in 1998," Vladas Gaidys, head of Vilmorus, a public opinion and market research center, told BNS Lithuania.

63.2 percent had a positive opinion about former President Dalia Grybauskaite during her last days in the office.

"Her result is fairly stable and she will no longer be rated as it was her final result and it was rather good," Gaidys said.

Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijosaities closes the top three with 54.5 percent. He is followed by Speaker of the Seimas Viktoras Pranckietis (53.2 percent), Transport Minister Rokas Masiulis (49.1 percent), Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius (48.4 percent), Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis (42.4 percent), Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Simasius (34 percent), Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the Order and Justice party (33.3 percent), and Economy and Innovation Minister Virginijus Sinkevicius (30.4 percent).

The survey of 1,021 people was carried out on July 5-13.