It is impossible to tell if Lithuania’s political parties and their leaders’ popularity on Facebook would convert into votes in a real election but the social network offers some indication of their chances, at least with a certain portion of the population.
Topping the Facebook political pyramid is Gabrielius Landsbergis, the leader of the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats. He is the most popular party leader on Facebook with 13,300 followers.
Trailing in a distant second is Liberal Movement leader Eligijus Masiulis with 8,800 fans on his personal page and 2,900 as a public figure.
Labour Party leader Valentinas Mazuronis takes third with 8,000 followers on his public profile, even though he has only 914 followers on his private account.
Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union leader Ramūnas Karbauskis comes in fourth with 6,200 Facebook followers, while the current Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius is in fifth with 6,000 followers. Former Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis takes sixth position with 4,700 followers.
For the parties themselves, the official Liberal Movement facebook page again takes top spot with 23,500 followers, followed by the Labour Party at 12,000 followers and the Homeland Union official site with around 10,000 people.
The Social Democrats lag well behind with just 5,700 followers on Facebook. However, the Order and Justice party is in the last place with just 730 fans.
“A lot is determined by the friends of the party, the assistants’ work. Some party representatives create memes, they share, write witty comments – doing whatever social network users want to see, and it grows the number of fans,” said political scientist Vincentas Vobolevičius.
Lrytas.lt
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