British market research firm YouGov surveyed residents of six leading world powers: Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Italy and the United States to find out which politicians they trust most. The undisputed leader was Angela Merkel, who at the end of September, after 16 years at the helm, will step down as German Chancellor.
When asked whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Merkel, in all six countries surveyed, more respondents gave a positive verdict than a negative one. The Chancellor received positive ratings of +61 in Spain, +49 in France and +30 in Germany. Opinions in Italy, the USA and the UK were slightly less positive - +23, +17 and +15, respectively. However, of the other world leaders, only Joe Biden - apparently mainly due to the contrast with the previous American president - was able to get even a little closer to Merkel.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also received positive assessments, while French President Emmanuel Macron was positively assessed only in Germany and Spain. Other world leaders, including Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson, received net negative ratings in all six countries surveyed. The least popular was the President of the PRC with an average net negative approval rating of -55, and the second-to-last place in the rating was taken by the Russian president.
The survey was conducted from July 9 to August 10 using representative national samples of more than 1000 people.