PM feels “reserved” about his party’s dropping ratings

Support for the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS), which delegated Skvernelis for prime minister, dropped to 11.9 percent in April, from 16.2 percent in March, according to the latest Vilmorus survey for the Lietuvos Ryas daily, published on Saturday.

Also, the percentage of those having a favorable opinion about the prime minister also decreased, although he remains among the three most popular politicians in the country. 49.4 percent said in April they had a favorable opinion about the prime minister, down from 54.3 percent in March. Meanwhile, those having an unfavorable opinion about the head of the government also dropped to 21.3 percent, from 23.7 percent.

“I have a very reserved opinion about the ratings. The best rating is when people really come to choose and vote and they choose based on what they really feel, whether it’s better or worse for them, whether they are satisfied. And these are more of emotions. Probably those who are very happy shouldn’t be so as the picture was very similar in 2016 as well”, Skvernelis told journalists on Saturday.

Skvernelis believes the rating’s drop has to do with the „agriculture issues“, involving Agriculture Minister Bronius Markauskas and the LVŽS leader.

Markauskas came under fire after the 15min.lt news website reported that Markauskas’ mother, Sofija Markauskienė, has been using several plots of land in the district of Klaipėda without the landowners’ permission for five to six years and that she has been receiving payments from the EU for that land.

Earlier, it turned out that Agrokoncernas, a company owned by the LVŽS leader Ramūnas Karbauskis, is using his sons’, sister’s, brother’s, father’s land, ignoring the existing rules barring natural and legal persons to control more than 500 hectares of land.