Icelandic President Drops In Popularity

Guðni Th. Jóhannesson remains a popular President, and a recent Market and Media Research poll shows him with a 81.8% approval rating, which is down from his peak of 85% in April.

More people are also unhappy with his work than previously, with 5.1% responding to being displeased with his work, compared to just 2.8% during the last round of polling.

It is hard to tell what has prompted this “spike” in disapproval, but the Grapevine’s political analysis department believes the causes may be a combination of the message in a bottle he found in the Faroe Islands, and that we haven’t seen many pictures of him wearing colourful socks or buff headwear recently.

Gender, politics

The genders seem to have a different take on the President, with him holding a 86% approval rating among women, compared to 77% among men.

But the biggest factor influencing people’s opinion of Guðni are political views, with the left wing overwhelmingly happier with the President than the right wing. A whopping 96% of Samfylkingin (Social Democratic Alliance) approve of the President, with Píratar (Pirate Party) and Vinstri Grænir (Left-Green Movement) clocking in just a percentage behind.

Voters of Framsóknarflokkurinn (The Progressive Party) and Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn (The Independence Party), however, are rather less enthused about the President, reporting an approval rating of just 64% and 68% respectively.

The popular President

Despite this tiny dip Guðni remains one popular guy and the biggest indicator of that is the comparison with his predecessor Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who for years floated just above the 50% approval rating.

We now this might sound like fake news, but trust us Donald, if you just behave like a decent guy people will like you.