Public trust in political leaders in Italy 2020

As of July 2020, 56 percent of respondents in Italy trusted the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Moreover, the share of interviewees who trusted the leader of the right wing party Lega, Matteo Salvini, added up to 30 percent. However, Giorgia Meloni, leader of the right wing Fratelli d'Italia, overtook Matteo Salvini. Giorgia Meloni is the only woman who leads a political party in Italy. Furthermore, Luca Zaia, the President of the northern region of Veneto, ranked second with a large share of supporters. During the COVID-19 emergency, he gained support among Italians for the region’s success in fighting the pandemic. The results of the survey show that the share of voters who declared to trust Luca Zaia was 44 percent.

Trust in the Prime Minister

The current government, the second led by Giuseppe Conte, was sworn in on September 5, 2019. A survey conducted in October 2019 show that Conte's government was widely sustained by supporters of the Five Start Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle - M5S) and Democratic Party (Partito Democratico - PD). The results of a survey from April 2020 show that trust in the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte among Italians has been increasing in the last months. In fact, at the end of April 2020, the Italian Prime Minister reached the largest approval rating.

Politics in a pandemic

Particularly, Italian interviewees appreciated the government's response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On the other hand, during the COVID-19 emergency, the support of the EU intervention was considered weak. Data from March 2020 reveals that a large part of interviewees disliked the European Union's attitude towards Italy.