Modi Retains Top Spot in 'Global Leader Approval' List with 76% Rating; Biden Stays in 7th Position, Sunak at 15th

Fresh from his G20 success, Prime Minister Narendra Modi retained his position at the top of an approval ratings list of global leaders. He was followed by Swiss President Alain Berset in second position with 64 percent approval rating and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in third position.

Going by the last approval ratings released in June, US President Joe Biden retained the seventh position with an unchanged 40 percent approval rating, while UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dropped from the 12th position to 15th with 27 percent rating.

At 76 percent, however, Prime Minister Modi’s approval rating dropped by one percentage point. The ‘Global Leader Approval Rating Tracker’ released on September 14 by Morning Consult, a decision intelligence company, also found the prime minister at the top position when it released its approval ratings in February with a score of 78 percent. Since then, his approval rating has dropped by two percentage points.

According to Morning Consult, the latest approval ratings are based on data collected from September 6 to 12. It said the ratings are based on a seven-day moving average of adult residents in each country, with varying sample sizes.

The grand G20 Leaders Summit in New Delhi – praised by a majority of leaders of member countries who attended – was held on September 9 and 10. The list comprises rankings of leaders from 22 countries, of which a majority are G20 members.

According to the list, Australia’s Anthony Albanese with an approval rating of 48 percent came in fifth while Italian PM Giorgia Meloni came in sixth with a score of 42 percent. Apart from PM Modi, who belongs to the right-wing BJP, Meloni is the only other global leader in the top 10 whose party, Brothers of Italy, takes up right-wing to far right position in politics. Irish prime minister, or Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar’s party has a centre-right political position. The rest of the leaders — Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, US, Spain and Canada — belong to parties that are centre-left to left wing or follow social liberalism (Democratic Party of the US).

Going by the approval ratings released in February, Berset improved his ranking to second position as well as his approval rating to 64 percent. The president of the Swiss Federation pushed Obrador to the third position, who got 61 percent approval rating. The Mexican president’s score, however, has dropped by seven percentage points since February.

Albanese came in fifth with a rating of 48 percent. He had ranked fourth with a rating of 58 percent in February. Meloni remained in sixth position but her rating dropped by 10 percentage points from 52 percent in February to 42 percent. Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took over the G20 baton from Modi last week, has improved his position from sixth in February to fourth but his rating has dropped from 50 percent to 49 percent.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, who was snubbed by India at the G20 summit, came in 10th but was in the eighth position in February. His approval rating, too, dropped from 40 percent to 37 percent. Trudeau was replaced by Spanish President Pedro Sanchez in the eighth position with a rating of 39 percent. He was 10th in February with a score of 36 percent. Varadkar retained his ninth position with an approval rating of 38 percent, improving his score from 37 percent in February.