But, as it turns out, this was only the beginning of the decline of the politician who was once crowned the king of the ratings.
When sending the December poll data to Lietuvos Rytas, Vilmorus director Vladas Gaidys said, „There's a sensation.“
It turned out that this time, citizens had mercilessly knocked Nausėda down – for the first time, the president, who is serving his second term, received more unfavourable (42.6%) than favourable (38.2%) ratings.
To date, only one other head of state has received such a negative rating – Rolandas Paksas, who served briefly but unsuccessfully as president several years ago.
After adding up the favourable and unfavourable opinions, Nausėda (-4.4) ended up in eleventh place on the list of public figures.
Saulius Skvernelis, leader of the Democratic Union Vardan Lietuvos (In the Name of Lithuania), leads this table quite convincingly.
The current president's ratings are not very high, according to residents' answers to the question „Which Lithuanian public figures best represent your interests?“
Here, the country's leader competed with Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Nemuno Aušra party. 6.1% of respondents said that Nausėda best represents their interests (in the previous poll, 10.4% said so), while 5.9% said that Žemaitaitis does. The difference is within the margin of error.
What is more, people's trust in the Presidency as an institution has recently fluctuated significantly.
Only 28% of respondents said they trusted the Presidency, while 32.3% expressed the opposite opinion (the results of the previous survey were 32.8% and 24.8%, respectively).
Lietuvos rytas previously reported that Nausėda's popularity began to decline when he joined the current ruling coalition, which is viewed controversially by the public and actively, though not always successfully, contributed to the formation of the 20th Government.
However, political scientist Professor Lauras Bielinis, speaking about Nausėda's sharply falling ratings, said he believed that the country's leader should not overestimate their significance.
„In my opinion, the president's ratings have fallen because the sequence of public events over the last six months has not been favourable to him. On the other hand, there is no need to worry about those ratings, because he will not seek a third term as president; it is simply impossible. He should implement the plans and ideas he had during his election campaign. That would be his greatest achievement. To regain the people's trust, it would be helpful if the president's public relations department worked more closely with the media and if the public responded to them. But I don't know how to achieve that,“ said Bielinis.
The results of this poll will certainly not please Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė.
In December, 30.3% of respondents had a favourable opinion of this politician, while 49.1% had an unfavourable opinion (in November, the public was slightly more favourable toward the prime minister, with 35.4% and 41% respectively).
The cabinet led by the new politician is also rated significantly lower than before. Currently, only 11.9% of the population trusts the government, while 46.5% do not (in November, these figures were 16.8% and 41.8%, respectively).
Government representatives can only console themselves with the fact that the number of people who do not trust the Seimas, which often resembles a failed circus, has increased to 56.7%.
However, there have been no changes in the party rankings.
The Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, and Nemuno Aušra remain in the top three.