Trust in German state hits record low of 17 percent
Public confidence that Germany's state can fulfil its duties is eroding fast:
RastinewsPublic confidence that Germany's state can fulfil its duties is eroding fast.
Only 17 percent of respondents trust the state to carry out its duties, according to a survey commissioned by the German Civil Service Federation (dbb) from pollster Forsa, released Thursday.
Seventy-nine percent of respondents said the state is overwhelmed by its tasks and the scale of problems it faces. dbb chairman Volker Geyer called the findings "a disaster for the government" and "a wake-up call."
Confidence in the state's ability to perform its duties has "hit a new low," Geyer said. "Politicians need to act to stop this decline."
Respondents named social security systems, pensions, and economic and fiscal policy as the areas where the state struggles most. Asylum and refugee policy, by contrast, has dropped sharply down the list, losing much of the weight it once carried.
The public also rated the performance of public services more critically than last year. dbb has commissioned the survey annually since 2020.
Geyer said the federal government must take the necessary steps, adding: "Citizens in Germany are waiting for reforms that improve their lives, drive economic growth, strengthen social systems and get the state working better again."
Geyer noted that politics can shift public perception, pointing to migration, which respondents now rate as a far smaller problem than a few years ago. "Perhaps there's a message here for policymakers: decisive action can genuinely reverse the negative trend seen in the polls," he said.
Among public institutions rated in the survey, street cleaning and waste collection services, along with libraries and museums, scored best. State ministries, and federal ministries in particular, scored worst. In terms of prestige, firefighters, healthcare workers and doctors topped the list, while politicians, insurance agents and advertising workers ranked at the bottom.
For the first time since the survey began in 2020, more than half of respondents (51 percent) said the performance of public services has declined.
Geyer attributed this largely to rising workloads, staff shortages and outdated equipment.
"We've been warning for years that the gap between demand and capacity keeps widening," Geyer said. "Yet politicians keep piling more tasks onto staff."
Source: DW