Dawn of Nemunas overtakes liberals in latest party ratings

The opposition Dawn of Nemunas has risen to third place in Lithuania’s party ratings, overtaking the Liberal Movement, according to LRT, citing a July survey by Spinter Research commissioned by news portal Delfi.

The Homeland Union–Lithianian Christian Democrats remained in first place, with 16.2% of respondents saying they would vote for the party in parliamentary elections, down from 16.5% in June.

The ruling Social Democrats ranked second with 10.1%, compared with 11.4% in June. Dawn of Nemunas received 8.5%, up from 5.7%, while the Liberal Movement fell to fourth place with 8.1%, down from 8.5%.

The ruling Farmers and Greens Union ranked fifth with 5.6%, compared with 5.5% in June.

Other parties failed to reach the 5% threshold required to enter parliament. Support for the ruling Democratic Union For Lithuania stood at 4.6%, followed by the National Alliance at 4.3% and the Freedom Party at 3.7%.

Some 10.2% of respondents said they would not vote, while 19.2% did not know or did not say which party they would support.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė remained the most popular choice for prime minister, supported by 13.7% of respondents. Dawn of Nemunas leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis rose to second place with 7.3%, while current Prime Minister and Social Democratic leader Mindaugas Sinkevičius ranked third with 6.7%.

Liberal Movement chair Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen ranked fourth with 6.4%, followed by Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis with 4.7%.

Meanwhile, 21.7% of respondents assessed the current government’s performance positively or rather positively, up from 16.1% in June. A total of 67.6% viewed its performance negatively or rather negatively, down from 73.8%.

Spinter Research conducted the survey among 1,006 people from July 18 to 28. The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points.