Ruling Farmers and opposition conservatives tied in poll

The August poll put support for both the LFGU and the conservative Homeland Union at 18 percent.

The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) held onto its third position with 11 percent of respondents saying they would vote for the party. The opposition Liberal Movement followed in fourth place with 9 percent support.

Other parties would not clear the 5 percent hurdle required to enter the parliament.

LSDP leader Paluckas comes out of shadow

President Dalia Grybauskaitė continued to top the popularity poll with 66 percent of respondents rating her favorably and 11 percent unfavorably.

The poll showed approval for both Saulius Skvernelis and Viktoras Pranckietis at 41 percent, but the prime minister had a higher unfavorable rating than the speaker of the Seimas, at 29 and 12 percent, respectively. Ramunas Karbauskis, the LFGU chairman, was rated favorably by 31 percent and unfavorably by 39 percent.

Gintautas Paluckas, the new LSDP chairman, begins to cement his position on the political arena, with 33 percent of respondents rating him favorably and 22 percent unfavorably in August. The majority of people had no opinion about him in previous polls.

Remigijus Šimašius, the leader of the Liberal Movement and the mayor of Vilnius, was viewed favorably by 41 percent and unfavorably by 20 percent, Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Homeland Union leader, by 38 percent and 27 percent, and Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the Order and Justice party’s leader, by 36 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

RAIT polled 1,014 people aged between 15 and 74 years on August 10 to 24. The results of the survey have an error margin of 3.1 percent.

Issues that received much public attention during the period the survey included the Social Democrats’ possible withdrawal from the ruling coalition, discussions on a reduced VAT rate on district heating, and Russia’s large-scale military exercise Zapad.