Is Petr Fiala, the Czech Republic´s prime minister, less popular at home than the leaders of countries like Chad, North Korea or Turkmenistan? No, that's not true: Undemocratic regimes such as those countries mentioned on social media are not included in the ranking of world leaders' popularity by a data research company. Fiala did have the lowest approval rating of leaders in 22 countries that included European Union members, the United States, Canada and South Korea.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on October 6, 2023, with text (translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff) saying "Prime Minister Petr Fiala has the lowest ranking among the world leaders in a survey of their support at home." The caption (in Czech, also translated by Lead Stories) reads:
A new world record. He surpassed even countries like the North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Syria, Chad, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Oct 9 09:38:17 2023 UTC)
The survey cited in the video's text is provided by Morning Consult Data Research Consultancy. Among other products, the consultancy tracks the approval ratings of leaders in 22 countries, including the Czech Republic. Other countries in the rankings are EU members such as Austria, Belgium and Italy, plus India, Australia, South Korea, the United States and others.
According to Morning Consult's latest Global Leader Approval Rating Tracker, Fiala was last with an 18 percent approval rate, while India's Narendra Modi was in the lead, according to the latest data at the time of writing. But the countries listed in the caption of the TikTok video, such as North Korea, are not included in this survey.
The data from the global leader approval tracker roughly corresponds to the Czech-based public opinion polling agency CVVM report. In August 2023, it said the Czech government had a 25 percent approval rate among citizens.
