The image of quarantine leaders is changing: Skvernelis used smart tactics and Veryga was too empathetic.

According to the Baltic Research survey carried out by the ELTA news agency from May 19 to 21, the evaluation of the work of Health Minister A.Veryga deteriorated during the month. According to the latest survey, the minister received a rating of 55 percent. surveyed, compared to 63% at the end of April.

Meanwhile, the popularity of Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has not changed, the changes in the results are recorded within the error of the survey. S. Skvernelis’s work is well appreciated by 59 percent. Respondents According to a survey carried out a month ago, the Prime Minister was positively rated at 61%. respondents S. Skvernelis’s work during quarantine was poorly evaluated by 32 percent. surveyed population.

Not even the news of the medal helped

Arūnas Armalis, the head of the public relations agency Opinio.lt, saw several reasons for this situation.

“There is such a principle in communication: the top manager tries to make himself public only with positive knowledge, leaving the negative to the deputies. This is how the main boss forms a positive image of himself, he seems to be a good visionary.

This is especially useful in politics. For example, V. Blinkevičiūtė, showing only with positive knowledge, created such a large image of a “retired mother” that even today she still rides her. Are we seeing that decision even now, seeing how S. Skvernelis and A. Veryga share roles? ”, Wrote A. Armalis on Facebook.

According to the public relations specialist, if we believe in the latest poll, the Prime Minister would benefit from such tactics. His rating hardly wavered. Meanwhile, Verygos fell.

“How has the communication of these politicians deferred in the last month? The Prime Minister attempted to post quarantine mitigations on the FB and did not air it unnecessarily. Either Šapoka or the First Vice Chancellor talk about the stagnation of business support.

Veryga continues to appear daily at solo press conferences and tries to provide many details that are certainly not always positive. At the same time, he jumped in with a medal sketch, but the euphoria was quickly overwhelmed by the information that doctors don’t even pay the blackest days in hospitals, “wrote A. Armalis.

The public relations expert said that if he worked for Veryga, he would advise him to cut down on press conferences and move on to calmer daily information.

“Press releases and information updates on the websites of the ministries as relevant as possible. And remember the duties of a minister. It seems that there are people in every day sp. conferences are already beginning to wake up, “wrote A. Armalis.

The situation is classic

Rasa Ališauskienė, sociologist and head of the market research and public opinion company Baltijos tyrimai, has already stated in the Delfi 11 program that the reasons why people evaluate one or the other politician well or poorly during the quarantine are quite clear .

“The paradox is that A. Veryga was one of the most unpopular Lithuanian politicians, especially with all his prohibitions, restrictions, and other things.” Certainly, the majority of society did not like it, but we must not forget that it took place in conditions of freedom, until the quarantine, when people had more options, “said R. Ališauskienė.

The sociologist called for the further development of the classical situation.

“When a goody comes up, especially when it comes to health, people get confused because health is still at the top of the value hierarchy. In Lithuania, people say they survive less because of their health, they say they survive less because of loved ones, more often because of older relatives or immediate relatives.

In this case, that trinket and that situation fell as from above. In other words, neither the politicians nor any individual are accused in Lithuania of the quarantine that has been introduced, because we were not the first country, but we follow the model of other countries and people already seemed to know what was happening in other countries. countries. In other words, we copy or act like other countries, which means that the reason is not here, ”said R. Ališauskienė.

According to a sociologist, in such a confusing situation, especially when it comes to health, most people need authority, they need rules.

“You can’t create rules in this place. And here, in particular, A. Veryga came on the scene. At the same time, the Prime Minister. It’s just that A. Veryga seems to be more responsible for that area of ​​health and the epidemiological situation , and the Prime Minister is already talking about the general order, the general situation in the country.

The point is that those three months were practically those two people, politicians, whom we have always seen in public space, ”summarized R. Ališauskienė.

According to the sociologist, the fact that A. Veryga is a doctor also contributed, and it was the representatives of this profession who, in the difficult epidemiological situation, became the main authorities. Among other society authorities, the sociologist mentioned the family doctor, Professor Vytautas Kasiulevičius of the Vilnius University School of Medicine, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and AIDS, Professor Saulius Čaplinskas of Mykolas Romeris University.

Determined which groups favored the minister

The sociologist noted that the work of A. Veryga and S. Skvernelis was appreciated most often by the more educated urban residents, those seeking more information about the situation.

“But it is obvious that, especially in the case of A. Veryga, this is definitely not an endless situation.” Just as he is currently the most popular politician in Lithuania, as the situation continues, the economic crisis deepens and society no longer understands the reasons, and why the restrictions must still continue if the diseases are decreasing and people are already they do not threaten your health, much will depend on communication. This is definitely not an endless situation, it can change very quickly, “said R. Ališauskienė.

The opposition is pressing to end the quarantine

Currently, the quarantine in Lithuania runs until June 16. Its conditions are being softened, but more and more opposition politicians publicly criticize its extension.

Gintautas Paluckas, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (LSDP), says that the Minister of Health still wants to keep Lithuania in an “emotional prison”.

Commenting on the Government’s decision, the President of the LSDP stated that it would no longer make sense to continue the universal quarantine in Lithuania, that the rulers behaved in this way from the deduction.

“Obviously, the quarantine regime is no longer necessary: ​​the scale of the pandemic is under control and most countries are working to return to normal life as soon as possible.” At the moment, the opposite is being done in Lithuania, because such a regime is convenient for the ruling authorities in the run-up to the elections. Aurelijus Veryga’s very obligatory instructions from the stands several times a day only cause psychological stress for people: he wants to keep all of Lithuania like an emotional prison, “says G. Paluckas in a press release.

The Prime Minister reacted with irony to such speeches by the LSDP President.

“Brave hares came out of the caves, they haven’t seen them in a couple of months. Such statements are out of fear, out of confusion, out of nothing to say,” S. Skvenelis told Knowledge Radio.

The government has established criteria to end the quarantine.

One of the criteria is the total incidence of coronavirus incidence of 100 thousand. the population should not increase in the last 14 days from the date of approval of the criteria.

The second criterion is at least 90%. New cases of coronavirus detected during the week are associated with localized and controlled outbreaks. According to SAM, last week 82 cases were detected, of which 78 were related to outbreaks and this represents 95.1%.

The third criterion is that the average number of new positive coronavirus cases per week does not exceed 0.5% compared to all studies. Last week, according to SAM, he made 38,000. 993 tests, of which 82 or 0.22% were positive.

The fourth criterion is a maximum of five import cases per week. Four of these cases were registered in the country last week.