Poles Trust Zelenskyy Most, Reject Putin Strongly

Zelenskyy Continues to Lead, but Support Has Decreased
According to the recent survey conducted by CBOS, confidence levels in 12 world leaders were measured. Based on this data, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the only leader who received high levels of trust among Polish respondents at 49%.

Despite being ranked first in the survey results, support for him as a leader has sharply reduced. For example, in July of 2022, 86% of Polish people said they had confidence in Zelenskyy, which means that he has lost 37% confidence in less than one year. During this same time frame, the number of Polish people who expressed distrust in Zelenskyy increased by 24% to 28%.

The second-place ranking for the most trusted world leaders was French President Emmanuel Macron, who had 36% of Polish respondents with confidence in his leadership and 27% who expressed distrust. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came in third place, with 31% of respondents having confidence and 14% having no confidence in her leadership.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rounded out the top four rankings, with 31% of respondents having confidence in her leadership and 43% feeling she lacks credibility as a leader. Von der Leyen's confidence level represents an increase of 31% from 2022 to 2023.

Donald Trump placed fifth on the trust scale, with 25% of respondents indicating they have confidence in his ability to govern and 56% not expressing confidence in him. In contrast, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had a total of 18% of respondents expressing confidence in his leadership and 53% stating they do not trust him at all.

Overall, the data indicate that while some of the leaders from the West are continuing to receive moderate levels of support, the level of scepticism towards many political figures continues to be robust among the Polish public.

Putin and Lukashenko Are Ranked the Lowest
The lowest-rated world leaders are the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and the Russian President Vladimir Putin. were listed in last place, with 2% of respondents indicating they have confidence in either of these leaders.

Both of these leaders have extremely high levels of distrust from the Polish population, with Lukashenko receiving 86% and Putin receiving 91% of total distrust votes in the survey, indicating Polish people believe that these two leaders do not govern well.

This survey was conducted from February 5th to 16th, 2023. A total of 967 adults responded to the survey, and this is a representative sample of Polish adults.