Lithuania’s elite consider President Gitanas Nausėda and opposition leaders Saulius Skvernelis and Laurynas Kasčiūnas to be the country’s most influential politicians, according to survey results published Monday by the news portal Delfi.
The annual ranking, compiled by the magazine Reitingai on behalf of Delfi, was based on a poll of 1,096 respondents – leaders in various professional fields – conducted between July 14 and September 8.
The top 10 list did not include any representatives of the ruling bloc currently holding senior positions in the government or the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament. Instead, the ranking featured several former national leaders, including ex-presidents Valdas Adamkus and Dalia Grybauskaitė, the first post-independence head of state Vytautas Landsbergis, former prime ministers Ingrida Šimonytė and Gintautas Paluckas, opposition Liberal Movement chair Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, and European Commissioner Andrius Kubilius of the conservative Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD).
A separate poll of the general public also placed Nausėda at the top, followed by Adamkus in second place and Grybauskaitė in third.
Overall, nine of the 10 names overlapped between the elite and public rankings, though their order differed. In the public survey, Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Nemunas Dawn party, ranked seventh, while Kubilius did not make the top 10.
The public survey was carried out in July by the market research company Spinter Tyrimai and included 1,000 respondents.
Delfi has been compiling its list of Lithuania’s most influential figures for 11 consecutive years.
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