Luc Frieden’s popularity among citizens of Luxembourg continues to wane, as he drops out of the top 10 most popular politicians in the latest Politmonitor survey. This marks a first for the poll, coordinated by Ilres, RTL, and the Luxemburger Wort, as never before has a Prime Minister failed to make the top ten.
Achieving a below-average score for sympathy and competence, Frieden finds himself in twelfth position, dropping three points compared to the results in June. The Prime Minister also scored poorly in his own party, reaching fourth place within the CSV with 52 points, matching the party faction president Marc Spautz, who is due to join the cabinet as labour minister imminently. Other CSV members who scored higher are finance minister Gilles Roth, who achieved eleventh place overall, and Minister of Agriculture Martine Hansen, and Chamber president Claude Wiseler, who achieved the best score of all CSV members. Hansen and Wiseler are the only CSV members to make the top ten, sitting in eighth and seventh place respectively.
Georges Mischo, who was still part of the cabinet at the time the survey was conducted, came in thirty-second place of all 41 politicians on the list, with an average of 33 points. He was deemed to be more sympathetic (35 points) than competent (31 points) by the public. He has since stepped down from his ministerial roles.
While the Prime Minister may not be altogether satisfied with his rating, his deputy Xavier Bettel continues to score highly with the public. The foreign minister improved upon his score from the last survey, achieving a total of 80 points. He is followed by former health minister Paulette Lenert of the LSAP, who holds on to second place. Her fellow party member Mars Di Bartolomeo achieved third place with an average of 65 points for popularity and know-how.
Three prominent members of the DP;namely, Luxembourg City mayor Lydie Polfer, defence and transport minister Yuriko Backes and Minister of the Economy Lex Delles were among those included in the poll. Backes ,in particular, has improved upon her score from June’s survey, adding nine points to her total to put the former court marshal in fifth place – making her the politician who has made the most gains in this survey, even more than the CSV’s Martine Hansen.
The Greens’ Sam Tanson gains three points from her previous score to reach ninth place, with LSAP fraction leader Taina Bofferding rounding out the top ten, both with an average of 57 points.
In general, the CSV members seemed to gain in popularity, with Martine Hansen adding seven points to her June total. Minister of the Interior Léon Gloden also gained seven points, while Claude Wiseler (+5), Gilles Roth (+5), Marc Spautz (+4), Serge Wilmes (+4), and Elisabeth Margue also improved their scores. However, their party leader and Prime Minister, Luc Frieden, bucked the trend. In addition, Martine Deprez, who has made headlines recently for her dual roles in health and social security, remained stagnant in 22nd position, with just 42 points for sympathy and competence.
Many members of the DP improved their scores, including party leader Gilles Baum with an additional six points, and digitalisation minister Stéphanie Obertin, who added five points to her total.
In last place of the 41 politicians included on the survey is Tom Weidig of the ADR with just 14 points. He is preceded by his party president Alexandra Schoos with 17 points. The Pirates’ Marc Goergen has managed to increase his score from June to reach 23 points. His party colleague Sven Clement achieved 25th place. Despite increasing his score by 5 points, ADR leader Fred Keup could only manage 38th place in the rankings.
The LSAP’s Francine Closener added four points to her score from June, while the Left’s Marc Baum reached 24th position.
After two years of a CSV-DP government, how does the Luxembourg public rate their work? There were no striking differences between the last Politmonitor survey in June and the December results. In June, 49% of respondents approved of the government, while 48% gave the coalition the thumbs up in December. Only 5% of participants said they felt the government merited a ‘very good’ rating. 43% said the government was ‘poor’, compared to 40% in June, and 33% said it was ‘very bad’. 9% abstained.
Respondents who allied themselves to the CSV said they rated the government’s work highly (93% in total). Supporters of their coalition partners the DP were less satisfied, with 63% approving of the government and 31% disapproving. The majority of participants supporting opposition parties such as the LSAP, ADR and the Greens said they were unhappy with the Frieden-Bettel government. The Greens expressed the most dissatisfaction at 79%.
On Wednesday, the second part of the Politmonitor survey will be published, covering the topics causing Luxembourgers the most concern.
For the Politmonitor survey, conducted on behalf of RTL and the Luxemburger Wort by Ilres, 1,042 people were asked their opinions on the government. The interviews were conducted over the phone and online via MyPanel between 17 and 26 November.
Full details on the method and the questionnaire used can be found on Alia.lu. Minimal differences may occur due to rounding up or down.
