Confidence in democracy is rapidly declining in Germany

Germans’ confidence in democracy is rapidly diminishing, according to a survey by the Körber Foundation released Thursday in Hamburg.

While in the European autumn of 2021 almost a third of those interviewed stated that they had less or little confidence in German democracy, this summer more than half of Germans (54 %) agreed with this statement.

The loss of confidence of citizens in political parties is even more dramatic. In 2020, 29 % of Germans said they trusted the parties, while a year later the figure dropped to 20 %. Now the nadir has been reached, as barely 9 % of respondents expressed confidence in political parties.

Some 1,113 adults participated in the survey carried out between June and July of this year by the consultancy policy matters, at the request of the Körber Foundation. Nearly 90% affirmed in the survey that life in freedom, equality before the law, the right to freedom of expression and free and secret elections are important to them.

At the same time, 71 % considered that the leaders and the media live in their own world, far from the rest of the population. Meanwhile, almost half of Germans (46%) considered that the country is not very fair or not at all fair.

According to the survey, 86 % of the citizens of Germany would like to be more involved in important decisions. This applies above all to the municipal (93%) and regional (91 %) spheres. However, the Germans also considered a greater participation at the federal level (85%) important. At the same time, more than half of those surveyed responded affirmatively to whether politicians “who have more power and will to assert themselves in order to make decisions quickly and firmly” are needed to solve problems.

The director of the department of democracy, commitment and cohesion of the Körber Foundation, Sven Tetzlaff, considered that the results indicate that the confidence of the Germans in democracy and its institutions is on a slippery slope. “This is a worrying development, along with the economic concerns of citizens,” he said.

Tetzlaff pointed out that half of those surveyed questioned whether the country is prepared to carry out the transformation tasks. “This significantly slows down people’s willingness to change to face big challenges,” the expert said.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Yannic Kreß, Unsplash)

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