As shown by the Spinter Research survey commissioned by the news portal Delfi on May 18-28, the Minister of Health Arūnas Dulkys, the Minister of the Interior Agnė Bilotaitė, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabriel Landsbergis, Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas and Minister of Finance Gintarė Skaistė. However, the proportion of these ministers and negative assessments is high.
The Minister of Economy and Innovation collected the highest percentage of overall negative / rather negative evaluations Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of Foreign Affairs G. Landsbergis, Minister of Justice Evelina Dobrovoska, Minister of Education, Science and Sports Jurgita Šiugždinienė and Minister of the Environment Simonas Gentvilas.
Two ministers – Minister of Transport Marius Skuodis and Minister of Agriculture Kęstutis Navickas – divorced a large number of people (more than 40%) who said they did not know what to answer the question or did not have an opinion.
More detailed survey data are available in the table. The data in parentheses distinguish between the parts of positive / rather positive and negative / more negative evaluations.
The survey specifically asked in each case: how do you assess the work of any particular minister? There is a tendency that members of the Government are generally valued better by younger people under 35 years of age. (With the exception of the Ministers of Education and National Defense, they are more favored by older people.)
People noticed the most visible ministers
Arijus Katauskas, a public relations expert and a senior partner of Nova Media, noted that those ministers who have the highest share of positive and negative evaluations have the fewest who do not know how to evaluate them.
“These are the most visible ministers – A. Dulkys, G. Landsbergis, among whom I miss A. Armonaitė. It would be very interesting to observe the dynamics of such ratings. Suppose Mr Landsberg and the proportion of positive assessments is large enough. The feeling that people think the place where he is now is very suitable for him. In order to confirm this, the results should be monitored over a longer period of time, ”said A. Katauskas.
The public relations specialist pointed out that among the ministers there are those for which more than 40 percent. people have no green understanding of how they should be treated.
“For those who are not interested in the specific field they supervise, they are a complete ‘terra incognita’,” A. Katauskas noted.
Lithuania is dominated by three themes
In the opinion of the public relations specialist, there is no way that there are any objective obstacles for them to see more.
“If you want to shine, you’ll have somewhere to shine, because all areas have their own target audiences and enough topics for you to communicate. Breaking through public space during a pandemic, Belarusian issues are far more difficult, but it seems that some ministers may even enjoy the fact that they are not visible.
They work in their field and don’t invest too much in their awareness, raising topics. It must be acknowledged that the reforms that were declared during the elections have gone into the background. It seems that nothing is happening in Lithuania without Belarus, the fight and the family march, ”said A. Katauskas.
The public relations specialist carefully considered why E. Dobrovolska and A. Armonaitė had such a large share of negative evaluations. In his view, perhaps this is due to the fact that the Freedom Party itself is a very strong fragmentation of society.
“The Freedom Party is under a lot of pressure on other topics,” said A. Katauskas.
There is a lack of MES activity
The public relations expert explained that when evaluating ministers, it is important to pay attention to where they came from in this position.
“Let’s say A. Dulkys is not a pure politician. He is more of a civil servant, a bureaucrat who has to perform his function. He had an area where he was both stuck and had problems, but one way or another he handled the situation. He has a lot of communication problems, but his position guarantees him visibility, “said A. Katauskas.
At that time, many other areas, according to the public relations specialist, are specific.
“Let’s say agriculture is a very specific field, which has a connection with specific audiences,” said A. Katauskas.
The biggest question for the expert is where the Minister of Education, Science and Sports is.
“I would not be afraid to throw some pebbles into the garden of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports. Topics are very important, many questions arise, “said A. Katauskas.
He would also like more visibility from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.
“Especially in a pandemic period, more should be invested in the visibility of certain information,” said A. Katauskas.
There can be many reasons
Jean Monnet Professor of Vytautas Magnus University Mindaugas Jurkynas said that in order to find out exactly what people meant by answering the questions, a separate study would be needed.
“As a scientist, I would say that this whole exercise of interpreting ratings is essentially meaningless and pointless, because we can’t prove anything. I can only speak at the level of hypotheses. (…) Because when we look at ratings, we know people’s opinions. In order to say why there is such a rating, people should be asked why they think so, ”said M. Jurkynas.
According to the political scientist, the reasons why people evaluate individual ministers in one way or another can be very many.
“Maybe it was the sympathies of that party, maybe it hated certain politicians or certain political parties,” M. Jurkynas said.
The specialist speculated that such assessments could be related to several things.
“The first is how many problems are related to the ministry under their supervision. Let’s say we don’t have any scandals with the Ministry of National Defense (Ministry of National Defense), the military’s confidence rating is not bad. I think that these things could have a positive effect, “said M. Jurkynas.
Another aspect singled out by the political scientist could be certain peculiarities of communication.
“That is how much and how politicians communicate, what message they reveal, whether that message is pleasant, say, ‘we will increase pensions’, or unpleasant, as ‘we will increase excise duties’. It can also be part of the assessment, which positively or negatively affects the opinion about a certain person in the position of the Minister, ”said M. Jurkynas.
The third thing that could have an impact, according to a political scientist, is party line evaluation.
“Probably the peasant voters will not have a very good opinion about the conservative ministers, they are like the conservative voters about the conservative ministers. It can also affect it, “said M. Jurkynas.
According to him, the rating may also reflect the assessment of the minister’s actions. This is how those actions affected the personal life of a particular person.
“Suppose there is a drop in the price of medicines, an increase in the list of reimbursable medicines, or other things where a person can say, ‘va, minister, please, and my life is changing.’ This can also affect the assessment, ”said M. Jurkynas.
Some know more than others
According to a political scientist, part of not knowing what to answer to a question depends on whether people know anything about the activities of those ministers at all.
“That knowledge has to do with two things, that is, the work that has been done that has now, during the management of the pandemic, not received media attention in terms of public relations. Then people say, “I don’t know what they’re doing, because now everyone is talking about a pandemic, fighting the president, and I don’t know about these, and I don’t know what to give,” Jurkynas said.
According to a political scientist, a rating is important for all politicians, because the goal of politicians is to participate in politics, that is, in the governance of the state.
“In order to participate, we need to win the trust of voters. To win it, you need to have a positive image – both in deeds and words. Political activity, working in a position, it is less grateful because the past does not repeat itself, but rhymes. We have not had a single re-elected government in thirty years. We could find positive works in any government, but it was overshadowed by the emphasis on negative works of the Government during the pre-election upheaval, ”said M. Jurkynas.
According to the political scientist, while in power, the main goal is to manage well, to solve some challenges in their sector, to tell about them, not to get involved in scandals, not to conflict with the media.
“This is the main starting point for better ratings,” said Jurkynas.
He thinks the rating of at least one minister could be better
According to the political scientist, without a deeper analysis, it is difficult to assess which members of the Cabinet of Ministers are generally better off in their positions.
“From a superficial point of view, I think that at least at this moment, KAM looks working. The State Department is embroiled in not the most beautiful political discussions with the president about who is throwing the loophole, or whether it really should be done because it was not discussed before the election.
Health care issues have been widely criticized – both for the advancement of vaccinations, for the scattering of communication, and for other things, ”M. Jurkynas noted.
In domestic affairs, according to the political scientist, the problem area is related to the border with Belarus, migration control issues.
“It seems that more and more political attention is being paid to this. There may be criticism here. At the Ministry of Environment, we remember the Minister’s disputes with the dismissals of the heads of the supervised departments, ”said M. Jurkynas.
According to the political scientist, M. Skuodis could be well appreciated.
“He is a professional in his field who has worked as a deputy minister, in my opinion, he should deserve higher grades. This is a little-known, but professional and hard-working minister, I don’t know how much he wants to go into politics, “said M. Jurkynas.
According to the specialist, there were critical aspects regarding E. Dobrovolska, delegated by the Freedom Party.
“At one time there was a hate speech control, internet police project. He fell asleep because he did not seem to be supported by other parties, “M. Jurkynas noted.
In general, according to the political scientist, the suppression of the main aspects of the Freedom Party raises the question of the extent to which that party and its ministers can influence.
“Perhaps it is more important for them to stay in the coalition than to push their issues. If their other issues, such as the decriminalization of light psychotropic substances without distribution, the partnership law, the Istanbul Convention on Violence against Women, do not go through the Seimas, everyone will ask what the ministers are doing there, ”said M. Jurkynas.
On May 18-28, 2021, the public opinion and market research company Spinter tyrimai conducted a public opinion poll commissioned by the news portal DELFI. The study included residents aged 18 to 75 years.
Combined survey method used: 50 percent. by telephone survey, 50 percent. the Internet. In the case of a face-to-face interview, the interview is conducted by a professional interviewer. He conducts a conversation with the respondent according to the prepared questions, recording the answers in a questionnaire. In the online survey, the respondent is sent a link to the survey, which the respondent fills in independently at a time convenient to him / her. The link is unique, ie the questionnaire cannot be filled in more than once.
The study surveyed 1,010 respondents. The distribution of the study participants by gender, age and place of residence is proportional to the distribution of the population in Lithuania.
The error of the research results is 3.1 percent.
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