Social democrats continue topping popularity polls in Lithuania

If Lithuania held parliamentary elections next weekend, the Social Democrats would secure 23 percent of the vote.

Its closest competitor, the Order and Justice party is more than 10 percentage points behind with 12.2 percent, followed by the conservatives, the Labour Party and the Liberal Movement with 9.8 percent, 8.9 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively. According to the survey, other parties would fail to cross the required 5 percent threshold.

In the December, the government’s performance was given a positive mark by 42.2 percent of respondents, as compared with 39.5 percent month-on-month. The number of pessimists went down from 55.5 percent to 51.7 percent over the month, which is the highest rating of the government’s performance over the past 18 months.

The government’s leader Algirdas Butkevičius of the Social Democrats also tops the list of politicians the respondents want to see at the helm of the Cabinet with 34.3 percent. The gap between him and his closest competitor – Social Democratic MEP Vilija Blinkevičiūtė – is huge, as 5.7 percent of those polled see her suitable for the post. Another 4.2 percent and 3.6 percent of respondents referred to the Order and Justice party’s leader MEP Rolandas Paksas and MEP Antanas Guoga.

The poll was carried for DELFI by public opinion and market research company Spinter Tyrimai (Spinter Surveys) on 12-22 December 2014.