Who’s your favorite political leader?
Donald Trump is one of the most controversial political leaders the United States has ever had. He made some pretty weird statements throughout his political career, from saying that COVID-19 is not as bad as people think and admitting that if Ivanka weren’t his dear daughter, he would like to go out with her, to supporting Vladimir Putin in his political desires, and so many other things.
But each country has its own leaders and citizens, which means that everyone has their own Donald Trump, better or worse. Controversies can always happen when you least expect them, and since political leaders are always in the media’s eye, it’s no wonder that their mistakes will be in the spotlight sooner or later.
Speaking of that, we thought that we could take a couple of minutes to talk about some controversial political leaders around the world and discuss why people find them hard to like. Ready? Then let’s take a look and discuss politics!
1. Michel Temer of Brazil
Coming to work after the former president was impeached should be rather easy, right? The bar is already low, so it shouldn’t be hard to prove how good of a leader you are. But Michel Temer, the man who was the leader of Brazil from 2016 to 2018, discovered that being the president of the country after Dilma Rousseff wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.
People were surprised when they saw that Mr. Temer wasn’t exactly the right fit for the job, considering that he was the vice president of Brazil for a good 5 years. As you already know, corruption is a big problem in the world, especially in important domains that should be crystal clear, such as politics.
The last couple of months in office were quite tricky for the Brazilian leader after it was discovered that he had some negotiations with someone about a bribe in order to keep fellow corrupt politicians silent.
Even though he denied all the accusations brought against him, nobody believed him, and he caused many problems in Brazil, such as poor economic decisions that led the country to the most devastating recession ever.
In 2023, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva became the leader of Brazil for the 3rd time, after being president from 2003 to 2011. Did people like him? Probably yes, but we’ll have to wait around and see what happens with this country next!
2. Alexis Tsipras of Greece
The second leader on our list who isn’t appreciated by people is Alexis Tsipras, a very important politician from Greece. He started serving as Leader of the Official Opposition in 2019, but there were many challenges that he had to face throughout the years.
The politician was the Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019, and he started his journey in office when the country wasn’t exactly in its best era. In 2015, Greece had already lost 25% of its gross domestic product since 2010, when a huge crisis emerged, so the government had to face a lot of problems to get things back on track.
According to sources, Mr. Tsipras managed to win the election by promising that he would talk to Germany and convince it to forgive the debt Greece was in, but there was no easy way out.
Everyone was worried about the financial situation that Greece was in, and many citizens were afraid that the government leader was too confident in his thoughts that he could save the country from going bankrupt.
The good news is that after 3 consecutive bailouts that happened over the course of 8 years, Greece managed to pay off its debt from the financial crisis to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and they succeeded 2 years ahead of schedule. We guess that sometimes it’s good to have a leader who isn’t afraid to say what they think.
3. Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela
And here is another leader who has been the president of his country for many years! Nicolas Maduro has been the leader of Venezuela since 2013, and he is considered by many to be the most embattled political leader in the whole world.
Venezuelans aren’t afraid to express their feelings out loud, and they sometimes go to the streets to protest against the government. For instance, one time they went out to complain about medicine and food shortages, and roughly 80% of the medicine they needed was unavailable. So it’s no wonder that they complained about it.
Some people say that the leader of Venezuela doesn’t have any charisma, and he used a combination of the national guard, police forces, and armed forces to contain the protests. He isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea.
4. Najib Razak of Malaysia
Najib Razak is a political leader from Malaysia, and he served as the 6th prime minister of the country from 2009 to 2018. It seems that political power runs in the family because this man is the son of Abdul Razak Hussein, who was also the prime minister of the nation.
Many people consider him one of the most contentious leaders of this century, and his political career was marked by a flamboyant lifestyle, corruption, and a clampdown on free speech.
He knew that he might not be a fantastic leader, but he could work his way up to riches. And when we say work, we actually mean corruption. In 2009, the year when he started to serve as prime minister, Mr. Razak settled an economic development investment fund that he called 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, shortly known as 1MDB.
Thanks to his investment fund, he managed to make his wallet big and bulky because no less than $1 billion made its way to Najib’s personal account. When people discovered that he was a corrupt politician, he tried to convince everyone that the money was actually a gift from the Saudi royal family.
The attorney general from Malaysia tried to back him up, and he said that $1 billion was actually a legal donation, and either way, most of it was returned. But was it indeed? According to sources, his approval rating was at record lows during that time.
His political career, on the other hand, didn’t give him any reasons to be scared because he used to maintain control of the United Malays National Organization, a political party that used to rule the political world of Malaysia before he was elected.
During his time as a leader, he managed to eliminate his adversaries within the party, while his opponents from outside the party have been brought to jail for different political reasons.
5. Jacob Zuma of South Africa
The last political leader we’re going to talk about in today’s article is Jacob Zuma, the man who was the 4th president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. However, his career as president wasn’t exactly all milk and sugar, because more than half of the citizens wanted him to leave office.
Part of their strong decision was the fact that South Africa’s economy wasn’t exactly in the best place, and that took a major hit with the recession the entire world was in as well as the deceleration of the stock market supercycle.
Zuma became the leader of South Africa in 2009, and he wasn’t a good politician for the country, considering that the nation’s currency has lost almost half of its entire value and that during his time, almost 30% of citizens were unemployed.
However, the problem was actually the leader himself, because he had almost 800 charges of corruption against him. Can you believe that? He knew that he was guilty of many things, so he was hoping for someone to keep him afloat in his political business.
What’s more, he even managed to get rid of the politicians who were against corruption and could’ve stood in his way. What can we say? He knew what he was doing, but the people in his country weren’t so happy about it!
If international politics is a subject that interests you, then we have a good book recommendation for you! If you enjoyed reading this article, consider giving this post a try too: Trump vs. Biden: What Do Their First Two Years of Presidency Look Like?
