While the Russians were buying gifts for the New Year and preparing to dance around the table with Olivier and champagne, the German edition of Welt am Sonntag was busy with a serious matter: its experts were choosing the main politicians of 2020. The Germans were helped in this by the results of a study conducted by a polling company YouGov.
The question that was asked to the respondents was: "Which politician in 2020 is most directly related to the solution of the main foreign policy tasks?"
Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin are the main political figures of 2020
The Germans predictably gave the first line in the political rating to their Chancellor Angela Merkel. 22% of the respondents are sure that this particular politician is best suited for solving global foreign policy tasks in the coming year.
Merkel has another year to demonstrate the full power of German politics. Indeed, in 2021 she will leave her post and is unlikely to be re-elected again, as the media claimed back in 2018 (in particular, Reuters, citing German party sources).
But in second place is the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, for whom 20% of respondents voted.
The three most influential politicians of 2020, according to Welt am Sonntag, are closed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who received 19 percent.
But only 16% of YouGov respondents believe that the main role in the foreign policy arena will be played by US President Donald Trump. I wonder if this figure would have changed in connection with the latest events in Iran, when Trump personally ordered the elimination of IRGC General Qasem Soleimani. The Pentagon called it "a decisive defensive action."
The new chairman of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gained 12% popularity, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping - 10%. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson got even less - 9%.
The woman, who is called a potential successor to Merkel, Defense Minister and head of the Christian Democratic Union, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, won only 3% of the vote.
29 percent of the respondents would not trust any of these politicians to solve pressing political problems, and 21 percent of the respondents found it difficult to answer.
Putin is the politician of the year for Russians
Almost half of the population of Russia - namely 46% - consider Vladimir Putin the main politician of the past year. These are the results of a telephone survey conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center in November-December 2019. It was attended by 1.6 thousand people over 18 years old.
Rounding out the top 3 are Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (15% of the vote) and Defense Chief Sergei Shoigu (10% voted for him). The top five politicians of 2019 also included LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
At the same time, 47% of Russians would not invite any of the Russian politicians to their festive table, and 22% of respondents agree with the personal presence of Vladimir Putin for the New Year's feast. 12% of respondents are ready to listen to Vladimir Zhirinovsky's New Year toasts, and 4% of Russians were ready to invite Dmitry Medvedev to the Christmas tree.
Along with the title of "politician of the past year," Putin was also awarded the title of "main media person of the year," taking the leading position among all persons mentioned in the media.Of the foreign politicians who appear most often in the Russian media, Vladimir Zelensky came out on top. This data was shared by the Interfax agency, based on the data of its "System of complex news analysis".