Voters unhappy with October choice

RIGA - At the beginning of this year, public opinion about the government’s performance dropped steeply, returning to the pre-election level, with about 80 percent of respondents saying they were dissatisfied with it, according to the latest DnB Nord Latvijas barometrs study, reports Nozare.lv. Shortly after Saeima elections last October, the proportion of positive opinions increased significantly, but by now the general opinion is very low again.
The government’s performance currently has a rating of minus 50, or as low as at the end of 2008 when the economic crisis began.

Market and public opinion research center SKDS senior representative Ieva Strode said that this was no surprise, taking into account that society basically voted for the continuation of the same government’s policy, although the public was very unhappy with the government before the elections. “As a result, we have almost exactly the same government that people criticized before the elections. Moreover, the government is not even trying to demonstrate any changes in its policies and national development, and perhaps has not even thought that something should be changed - they were re-elected, after all,” said Strode.

Political center EuroCivitas Director Viktors Makarovs agrees with Strode. Makarovs also believes that the minimal voter support for the government poses risk to the government’s stability, because it could be very tempting for various political forces to overthrow such an unpopular government.

The public opinion survey was carried out by SKDS this past January.