According to a survey, trust in all political institutions has fallen drastically compared to the previous year. There is a loss of trust in all ten institutions surveyed, according to the “RTL/ntv trend barometer” published on Tuesday. The greatest decline in trust can be observed in the two executive institutions at the federal level: the Federal Chancellor only achieved 33 percent, the Federal Government 34 percent – a minus of 24 and 22 points respectively.
The Bundestag, in which 37 percent of those surveyed had confidence at the turn of the year, recorded a decline of 13 percentage points. Confidence in the Federal President fell by twelve points to 63 percent – but as in previous years, he had the greatest level of trust among the political institutions.
Trust in mayors fell by eleven points to 44 percent, according to the Forsa Institute’s 15-year trust ranking of institutions.
At the turn of the year, the state governments (46 percent), the municipal councils (43 percent) and the city or municipal administrations (43 percent) showed a nine percentage point lower level of trust. The decline in trust in the European Union (31 percent) and the political parties (17 percent) was somewhat lower at seven percentage points each.
According to the information, a comparison with the trust value that Angela Merkel (CDU) had received at the turn of the year 2020/21 at the height of the Corona wave at the time shows how drastically trust in the institution of the “Federal Chancellor” has fallen: At that time, 75 percent had Chancellor has great confidence. At the turn of the year 2021/22, 57 percent still had great trust in their successor Olaf Scholz (SPD), as RTL/ntv further announced.
The Forsa survey also revealed clear east-west differences. With the exception of institutions at the local level (municipal council: 44 percent), East Germans have less trust in political institutions than West Germans. The difference in trust in the Federal President (East 53 percent, West 65 percent) and in the European Union (East 20 percent, West 33 percent) was particularly large.
According to the survey, the confidence of East Germans in the political parties fell to eleven percent at the turn of the year.
According to the survey, as in previous years, supporters of the AfD have by far the least trust in all political institutions. According to this, only two or three out of 100 AfD supporters trust the chancellor, the federal government, the Bundestag or the European Union.
Forsa interviewed 4003 German citizens on behalf of RTL Germany from December 15th to 22nd.
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