Lithuania's outgoing government has been given a scathing public verdict, with nearly three-quarters of voters rating its performance negatively, according to a Spinter Tyrimai poll published on Wednesday.
The survey, commissioned by the news portal Delfi in June, found 73.8% of respondents viewed the record of the outgoing government, led by Inga Ruginienė, negatively or fairly negatively, against just 16.1% who took a positive or fairly positive view.
The poll was carried out after the ruling Social Democrats replaced their coalition partner Nemunas Dawn with the Democrats for Lithuania on June 6, and after party leader Mindaugas Sinkevičius stepped forward on June 16 to take over as prime minister from Ruginienė.
Despite the coalition shake-up, the opposition Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats remained Lithuania's most popular party, backed by 16.5% of respondents, up from 15.5% in May and comfortably ahead of the governing Social Democrats, who rose to 11.4% from 8.9%.
Former Conservative prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė also remained the public's clear preference for the role, on 14%, even though her rating slipped from 15.1% in May.
Sinkevičius's own personal rating did rise sharply in relative terms, from 1.9% to 5.6%, but he still trails Šimonytė by a wide margin, and pollsters cautioned the increase only marginally exceeded the survey's 3.1 percentage-point margin of error.
Taken together, the figures suggest the coalition reshuffle and change of prime minister have done little to shift the broader political picture: the opposition still leads, and dissatisfaction with the outgoing government remains overwhelming.
The opposition Liberal Movement came third on 8.5%, up from 7.6%, while Nemunas Dawn, now in opposition, slipped to 5.7% from 6.3%.
The ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union stood at 5.5%, down slightly from 5.7%. The Democrats for Lithuania, the coalition's newest member, remained below the 5% threshold, though its support rose to 3.4% from 2%.
Among potential prime ministers, Liberal Movement leader Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen followed Šimonytė and Sinkevičius on 5.4%, ahead of Nemunas Dawn leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis on 4.2%, former Social Democratic leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė on 3.6%, and Kaunas mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis on 3.4%.
The poll found that 10.8% of respondents said they would not vote, while 21.6% were undecided or did not answer.
Spinter Tyrimai surveyed 1,022 residents aged 18 to 75 between June 18 and 28, using a combination of telephone and online interviews.
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