Top 10 worst leaders of 1st world countries in the 21st century?

[VBM]

What the title said

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Any list not including Silvio Berlusconi is suspect.

[Astatine]

Park Geun-hye is a hot contender for the list.

[PSOL]

1. Park Geun-Hye
2. Donald Trump
3. Janez Jansa
3. Viktor Orban
5. Silvio Berluscioni
6. Boris Johnson
7. Scott Morrison
8. Pedro Sanchez
9. Stefan Lövfen
10. Justin Trudeau

[Santander]

Any list not including Silvio Berlusconi is suspect.

He's my hero, lol.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Any list not including Silvio Berlusconi is suspect.

He's my hero, lol.

This is very Santrollder.

[Santander]

Any list not including Silvio Berlusconi is suspect.

He's my hero, lol.

This is very Santrollder.

Every man in the world would dream to be Berlusconi.

[Astatine]

Assuming that you mean "1st world" development-wise (therefore using the following map), I collected some of the worst/most incompetent leaders, although this is not supposed be a ranking but rather a loose list:



US: Donald Trump. No further words needed, I assume? Considering the consequences of his foreign policy, George W. Bush might also be a possible applicant.
Canada: Nobody seems to be bad enough to make it to the list.
Chile: Sebastián Piñera seems to be a hot contender considering his terrible handling of both the Chilean protests and the Covid crisis.
Argentina: Not well informed enough to form an opinion.
Australia: Tony Abbott, maybe? Scott Morrison might also be a choice for his handling of the wildfire crisis.
New Zealand: No Prime Minister seemed to be extremely bad.
South Korea: The beforementioned Park Geun-hye for being a corrupt shill who severely damaged her country's most powerful office.
Japan: Too many short term PMs.
Ireland: Brian Cowen.
UK: Ough, Tony Blair for foreign policy, David Cameron for austerity and long-term effects of his Brexit referendum, Boris Johnson for just being incompetent?
Italy: Berlusconi ofc.
France: Hollande or Sarkozy, don't know who was worse?
Germany: Neither Merkel nor Schröder were outstanding, but none of them were particularly bad.
Slovenia: Janez Janša, corrupt and ultranationalist.
Hungary: Viktor Orbán for being Janša on steroids.
Spain: Possibly Rajoy for his handling of the Catalonia crisis and its long-term effects on Spanish policy.
Sweden: Stefan Löfven strikes out for his handling of Covid.
Czechia: Petr Necas possibly.
Slovakia: Robert Fico, corruption in person.
Croatia: Likely Ivo Sanader, who's in jail for corruption and bribery.
Belgium: Did they even have any PM who served on a non-interim basis lol
Poland: Kaczynski was never in charge personally.
Greece: Georgious Papandreou?
Iceland: Geir Haarde, Icelandic banking crisis?

Don't know much more about the remaining countries, some might not even have had particularly bad leaders (Norway?) or are simply to irrelevant, so their leaders won't have caused any large-scale problems (Liechtenstein lol).

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

1. Park Geun-Hye
2. Donald Trump
3. Janez Jansa
3. Viktor Orban
5. Silvio Berluscioni
6. Boris Johnson
7. Scott Morrison
8. Pedro Sanchez
9. Stefan Lövfen
10. Justin Trudeau

No Dubya? I'm surprised.

[PSOL]

1. Park Geun-Hye
2. Donald Trump
3. Janez Jansa
3. Viktor Orban
5. Silvio Berluscioni
6. Boris Johnson
7. Scott Morrison
8. Pedro Sanchez
9. Stefan Lövfen
10. Justin Trudeau

No Dubya? I'm surprised.

Oh yeah, Dubya most likely ties with BoJo

[Former President tack50]

1. Park Geun-Hye
2. Donald Trump
3. Janez Jansa
3. Viktor Orban
5. Silvio Berluscioni
6. Boris Johnson
7. Scott Morrison
8. Pedro Sanchez
9. Stefan Lövfen
10. Justin Trudeau

Sanchez on #8, Lofven on #9 and Trudeau in #10? I can certainly imagine negative arguments for all 3, but that's an odd position for someone on the left to take?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

For Japan it's probably a tie between "heart of a flea, brain of a shark" Mori and sinister crypto Nazi Taro Aso (the LDP prefers to keep that sort of thing at least a bit more subtle). The Democrats were all fairly incompetent, but it was largely a particularly malignant behind the scenes power player that blew their singular term in office. I don't like Koizumi or (esp) Abe but they largely made their mark.

Italy is quite obviously evil clown Berluconi, although D'Alema was a rather underrated source of horror.

In Australia it is hands down Tony Abbott. A neverending source of humiliation there.

In Canada, Paul Martin was pretty atrocious iirc.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Italy is quite obviously evil clown Berluconi, although D'Alema was a rather underrated source of horror.

D'Alema has notoriously ghoul status among certain circles on the left [which I only get in part, since I suppose I'm too young to remember a time where he was more than an occasional talk show presence who makes cunning left-leaning remarks] but to be fair he doesn't belong here in any case, as his term ended in 2000 - so still in the 20th century.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Any list not including Silvio Berlusconi is suspect.

Italy's a first world country?











(just kidding)

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Any list not including Silvio Berlusconi is suspect.

Italy's a first world country?

As I once said:

To be fair, compared to Northern Europeans and their hyper-developed utopias, we Italixns have all the tracts of ethnic minorities deserving protected status:
- poorer
- less educated
- darker skin
- oppressed [by the EU]
- more religious
- more culturally """retrograde"""
- better food

Also a funny thing is that as far as I remember a bad taste joke about Italy being a third world country which made me very nervous is how my now great forum relationship with Cath started.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Never heard of park jeun gye and i don't know what else she did besides corruption. Same thing applies to that slovenian leader, but i'll do an attempt.

1. Mariano Rajoy
2. Donald Trump
3. Silvio Berlusconi
4. Viktor Orban
5. George W. Bush
6. Tony Blair
7. Tony Abbott
8. Scott Morrison

After that i don't really know. The 3 last french leaders and some uk leaders could be considered but i don't think they're top 10 worthy as of yet. But I don't know Sarkozy well enough.

Greek leaders could be considered and should be named and than add that South Korean one, whatever and that's my list.

[America Needs R'hllor]

1. Donald Trump
2. Viktor Orban
3. Benjamin Netanyahu
4. Silvio Berlusconi
5. George W. Bush
6. Shinzo Abe
7. Boris Johnson
8. Tony Abbott
9. Park Geun-hye
10. Ehud Olmert

[LAKISYLVANIA]

also IIRC i think Lofven just followed the advice of Swedish virologists who were against lockdown.

1. Donald Trump
2. Viktor Orban
3. Benjamin Netanyahu
4. Silvio Berlusconi
5. George W. Bush
6. Shinzo Abe
7. Boris Johnson
8. Tony Abbott
9. Park Geun-hye
10. Ehud Olmert

forgot about Israel, but Rajoy should always be named for how he handled Catalonia. Always! Cameron allowed peaceful referenda, one with the result he aimed for, one sadly not. But Rajoy handled Catalonia like a brutal dictator would've done. And it easily makes him worse than Trump.

[Velasco]

Isn't Brazil a "First World Country"?  What do you say China, isn't it a global superpower?

Never heard of park jeun gye and i don't know what else she did besides corruption. Same thing applies to that slovenian leader, but i'll do an attempt.

1. Mariano Rajoy
2. Donald Trump
3. Silvio Berlusconi
4. Viktor Orban
5. George W. Bush
6. Tony Blair
7. Tony Abbott
8. Scott Morrison

After that i don't really know. The 3 last french leaders and some uk leaders could be considered but i don't think they're top 10 worthy as of yet. But I don't know Sarkozy well enough.

Greek leaders could be considered and should be named and than add that South Korean one, whatever and that's my list.

Lol. Mariano Rajoy was not the best leader I can imagine, but he's not bad enough to be on the top of the 10 worst world leaders.  In my opinion he's not even the worst of the Spanish leaders in XXI century, because José Maria Aznar was in office until 2004. Aznar was an unpleasant guy who engaged our country in the invasion of Iraq and set the foundations of the real estate bubble that broke after 2008. In what concerns Argentina, I think it's a tie between Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the vapid incompetent Mauricio Macri (that country has bad luck with leaders). But again, if Argentina is "1st World" then include Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro is on top of the horrid rightwing populist bunch alongside Donald Trump, slightly above of Silvio Berlusconi, Viktor Orban and Benjamin Netanyahu. My beloved Aznar would be at the level of conservatives like Tony Abbott or Dubya. I am missing a lot of terrible leaders, but want to make a special mention to Tony Blair. Also. Lol at the guy who includes Pedro Sánchez or Justin Trudeau here (it's not that I regard them exceptionally good, but there is plenty of first quality stuff to contest Mr Horrid Leader of the Century)

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Isn't Brazil a "First World Country"?  What do you say China, isn't it a global superpower?

Never heard of park jeun gye and i don't know what else she did besides corruption. Same thing applies to that slovenian leader, but i'll do an attempt.

1. Mariano Rajoy
2. Donald Trump
3. Silvio Berlusconi
4. Viktor Orban
5. George W. Bush
6. Tony Blair
7. Tony Abbott
8. Scott Morrison

After that i don't really know. The 3 last french leaders and some uk leaders could be considered but i don't think they're top 10 worthy as of yet. But I don't know Sarkozy well enough.

Greek leaders could be considered and should be named and than add that South Korean one, whatever and that's my list.

Lol. Mariano Rajoy was not the best leader I can imagine, but he's not bad enough to be on the top of the 10 worst world leaders.  In my opinion he's not even the worst of the Spanish leaders in XXI century, because José Maria Aznar was in office until 2004. Aznar was an unpleasant guy who engaged our country in the invasion of Iraq and set the foundations of the real estate bubble that broke after 2008. In what concerns Argentina, I think it's a tie between Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the vapid incompetent Mauricio Macri (that country has bad luck with leaders). But again, if Argentina is "1st World" then include Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro is on top of the horrid rightwing populist bunch alongside Donald Trump, slightly above of Silvio Berlusconi, Viktor Orban and Benjamin Netanyahu. My beloved Aznar would be at the level of conservatives like Tony Abbott or Dubya. I am missing a lot of terrible leaders, but want to make a special mention to Tony Blair. Also. Lol at the guy who includes Pedro Sánchez or Justin Trudeau here (it's not that I regard them exceptionally good, but there is plenty of first quality stuff to contest Mr Horrid Leader of the Century)

Nah Rajoy is top spot, Bolsonaro (but I don't count Latin-America as 1st world) is worse and Netanyahu perhaps should be higher than both Trump & Rajoy. Aznar could indeed be listed in top 10.

We should make a top 10 best leaders but that's probably harder to do, although the existence of Scandinavia makes it do-able.

[Velasco]

Gonna try my Top Ten Worst Western World XXI Century Leaders.

Candidates for the Mr Horrid Master of the Universe contest:

1. Jair Bolsonaro
2. Donald Trump
3. Dubya and Tony Blair (special guest JM Aznar)
4. Silvio Berlusconi
5.Benjamin Netanyahu
6. Nicolás Maduro (honour mention to Jeanine Áñez)
7. Viktor Orbán and the Polish twins
8. Álvaro Uribe
9. Boris Johnson
10. Tony Abbott and Stephen Harper

Honour Diploma to assorted Latin American leaders (CFdK, Mauricio Macri, Sebastián Piñera, Iván Duque, Lenin Moreno...)


Honour Diploma (Tender Branson Award): Sebastian Kurz, the guy from the Netherlands and the 'frugal' bunch (aka the Hansa League)

I'm overlooking East Asian countries (technically they are not 'western') and terrible guys from Guatemanla, Honduras or El Salvador

[Former President tack50]

Nah Rajoy is top spot, Bolsonaro (but I don't count Latin-America as 1st world) is worse and Netanyahu perhaps should be higher than both Trump & Rajoy. Aznar could indeed be listed in top 10.

We should make a top 10 best leaders but that's probably harder to do, although the existence of Scandinavia makes it do-able.

How the hell is Rajoy the worst leader of a 1st world country in the 21st century???

Like Velasco said, he isn't even the worst candidate for "worst leader in Spain" (Aznar was definitely worse; and I imagine a lot of conservatives could easily make an argument for Zapatero, even if I disagree)

Rajoy had a decent-ish (but not great by any means) economic management. He didn't pass really any huge policy changes in my mind other than a labour reform that was bad in my opinion, but which arguably helped solve unemployment? (unemployment peaked in 2013 and started slowly coming down since then). He was a manager and had a technocratic style, a Merkel-style figure except having to deal with a much worse situation (and being worse than Merkel of course)

He handled the Catalonia situation poorly I'll admit but that's not a reason to put him as the worst.

If anything, on the big scale of things, Rajoy is fairly low profile and mediocre.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Never heard of park jeun gye and i don't know what else she did besides corruption.

She was revealed to be the puppet of an insane cultist, it was seriously deranged.

[Red Velvet]

Lots of love here for Xi Jinping it seems lol

m

Uruguay is the most stable and rich South American country, if Chile + Argentina are considered 1st world, then Uruguay definitely needs to be too. They don’t have terrible leaders though, they’re too moderate.

The definition is too broad and weird though. Some use it based on wealth, others on development, others on culture, others on politics, others on Cold War alignments. It became pretty much a personal subjective definition than anything objective.

Also, not sure French Guyana is 1st world on any scale measure lol. Technically they’re France on name yes, but people there are way more forgotten and ignored by the French government in comparison to Mainland France citizens.

Honestly, just by traveling to the capitals (which is very personal, I know), I had the impression Suriname was more developed than French Guyana.

[Alben Barkley]

Am I the only one who thinks Cameron might be worse than Johnson? Idiot never should have held that stupid referendum in the first place. Johnson just seized the opportunity it provided and followed through with it. Hell, he literally had two articles ready to publish supporting or opposing Brexit depending on the way the winds blew. He is just an opportunist, not an ideologue. Ultimately the blame for Brexit lies at Cameron’s feet, not Johnson’s.

And he sure as hell is worse than Tony Blair.