Rate the Minister survey | Absolute majority judge Mario de Marco positively

A rate the minister survey conducted by MaltaToday showed that Culture Minister Mario de Marco emerged as the most popular Minister in Lawrence Gonzi's Cabinet, with a positive rating of 53%.

The survey showed that with the exception of Giovanna Debono and Joe Cassar - who have seen a slight dip in their ratings - all Ministers have seen an increase in the number of respondents who judge them positively.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech - who registered a 12-point increase in positive ratings - has registered the greatest improvement over last year. Foreign Minister Tonio Borg - who has been just nominated to replace John Dalli as EU Commissioner - has also seen a 9-point increase in positive ratings.

On the other, hand Health Minister Joe Cassar - who has been on the receiving end of criticism by the opposition and Franco Debono for shortcomings in the health system and his handling of the deal over St Philip's Hospital - has registered the largest drop in positive ratings. Yet the embattled health minister remains the second most popular minister alongside Education Minister Dolores Cristina.

Stripped of her social policy portfolio, the education minister who, prior to 2009, topped MaltaToday's Rate the Minister surveys, has not recovered her past popularity but has seen her positive rating increase by 3 points over last year.

Newcomer Chris Said - who has recently piloted controversial legislation on IVF and cohabitation - emerges in third place just 2 points after Cassar and Cristina and significantly as the second most positively judged minister among Nationalist voters. 

Austin Gatt still remains the least positively rated minister in all past MaltaToday surveys but has registered a 6-point increase in positive ratings.

The unpopular Minister is judged negatively by a staggering 60% of respondents.

Significantly, Gatt is the only Nationalist Minister whose performance is judged negatively by a relative majority of Nationalist voters.

This emerges from a MaltaToday survey held in the past week in which respondents were asked to assess the performance of each of the ten Ministers. 

This was the first such survey after last January's Cabinet reshuffle, which saw the promotion of Mario de Marco, Chris Said and Jason Azzopardi from parliamentary secretaries to Ministers. 

Methodology

The survey was held between Monday 22 October and Thursday 25 October. A total of 736  respondents were randomly chosen from telephone directories and contacted by telephone. Of these 500 accepted to participate in the survey. Results were weighed to reflect the age and sex balance of population as established in the latest census. The survey has a margin of error of /-4.4%.