Lithuanian president, PM see their approval ratings drop – survey

VILNIUS – Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte saw their approval ratings drop by 8-10 percent last month, the latest Vilmorus survey for the Lietuvos Rytas daily shows.

Published last Saturday, its result show that Nauseda had an approval rating of 55.2 percent in July, compared 63.1 percent in June.

Vilija Blinkeviciute, the newly-elected leader of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, came in second with 49 percent, unchanged from June.

Visvaldas Matijosaitis, mayor of Lithuania's second-largest city of Kaunas, comes in third with 42.6 percent, down from 43 percent in June, followed by Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen with 37.2 percent (39.8 percent in June).

"A total of 24 politicians are rated, including the leaders of the parliamentary parties, ministers, the prime minister, the president and the mayors of two cities. And only four out of these politicians have a positive balance, speaking of positive and negative opinions. All ministers are with the minus sign, the prime minister as well. I don’t remember any time when it was like that," Vladas Gaidys, head of Vilmorus, told BNS.

Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte comes in fifth with 29.9 percent, down from 39.8 percent a month ago. She is also among politicians with the highest percentage of negative opinions as 51.2 percent of respondents had a negative opinion about her.

Those with the highest negative rating include Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite, Valdemar Tomasevski, leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, representing the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, as well as Economy and Innovation Minister Ausrine Armonaite from the Freedom Party.

The survey of 1,000 people was carried out on July 29 through August 5.