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.
