Tuesday, January 04, 2022
RTL / ntv trend barometer
Confidence in politics is falling – especially in the Chancellor
Almost all political institutions, from the Federal President to the municipal council, suffer a loss of confidence. The change compared to the previous year is particularly large for the Chancellor.
Even at the turn of the year 2021/22, the Federal President is the political actor in whom most Germans have great confidence. In a survey by the opinion research institute Forsa for the RTL / ntv trend barometer, 75 percent of those questioned said they had great confidence in the head of state.
Well behind are the institutions that hold actual political power. 57 percent of Germans have great confidence in the Federal Chancellor. That is 18 percentage points less than a year ago, when Chancellor Angela Merkel was still in office. By way of comparison: trust in the Federal President fell by one point, and that in the federal government by seven points.
Trust is also declining in all other federal, state and municipal institutions, albeit less strongly than in the Chancellor. Only the European Union continues to achieve a confidence rate of 38 percent. At 24 percent, trust in the political parties is the lowest it has been for many years.
AfD supporters have the least confidence in institutions
The level of trust in political institutions in the old and new federal states continues to differ. East Germans have less confidence in all political institutions than West Germans. The difference between East and West is particularly large when it comes to trust in the Bundestag and the European Union.
However, there are also clear differences in the level of trust between the supporters of the parties. Trust in most political institutions is higher among supporters of the SPD, the Greens and the Union parties (with the exception of the Federal Government) and less among supporters of the FDP and the Left Party than among German citizens as a whole.
As in previous years, AfD supporters have by far the least trust in all political institutions. In fact, less than 10 percent of AfD supporters trust the Federal Chancellor, the Bundestag, the European Union and the federal government. In the case of political parties, only 2 percent of AfD supporters say they have “great confidence” in them.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of RTL Germany from December 15 to 23, 2021. Database: 4038 respondents.