Trust in the chancellor collapses
Only one in five Germans still has great confidence in the Federal Chancellor. Compared to the first year of coronavirus, this is a drastic loss of trust - albeit one that is in line with the general trend.
Germans' trust in the Federal Chancellor has not been as low as it is now for years. According to a survey conducted by the opinion research institute Forsa for the RTL/ntv trend barometer, only 20% of Germans have great confidence in the office of Federal Chancellor.
At the end of the first year of the coronavirus crisis in 2020, the figure was still 75%, after which it continued to fall. Only 12% of East Germans currently have great confidence in the chancellor. Not only do supporters of the opposition parties CDU, CSU and, above all, the AfD (of which only one in 100 has confidence in this institution) have little trust in the chancellor, but also supporters of the co-governing FDP.
Trust in the federal government as a whole has also plummeted: at the end of 2020, 63% of Germans had a high level of trust in the federal government; by the end of 2023, only 21% still did - a drop in trust of 42 percentage points in just three years. Trust in the Bundestag, i.e. the legislative branch, has also fallen from 54% to 32% since the end of 2020.
At the end of 2023, trust in the chancellor was almost as low as trust in the Pope, which had fallen to a low of 16% at the end of last year in light of the ongoing discussion about the abuse cases in the Catholic Church. At the end of 2023, trust in the Pope had not fallen any further to 17%, but had even risen slightly by one percentage point to 17%. Only the - relatively few - regular Catholic churchgoers still have great trust in the Pope.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of RTL Germany. Data basis: 4002 respondents.
Further information on Forsa here.Forsa surveys commissioned by RTL Germany.
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The survey conducted by Forsa for RTL/ntv trend barometer also reveals that trust in Olaf Scholz, the Federal Chancellor, has significantly decreased among supporters of the CDU, CSU, and the AfD. Similarly, Pope Francis' trust levels have also seen a decline, with only a slight increase from 16% to 17% at the end of 2023.
Despite the ongoing discussion about abuse cases in the Catholic Church, regular Catholic churchgoers continue to have great trust in Pope Francis, contrasting with the low trust levels in the German chancellor.
Source: www.ntv.de
