Young Germans tend to distrust govt: survey

Many young Germans distrust the country's government and parliament, even though trust in democracy itself is comparatively high, a new opinion survey released on Tuesday suggests, reported dpa.

The survey also found that Germans have more trust in their political institutions than people in other countries surveyed.

The study presented on Tuesday by the Bertelsmann Foundation is based on data collected in 2023.

It shows 59% of German 18 to 30-year-olds surveyed trust democracy, which is significantly more than the average of nine other European countries, where the figure was 50%.

However, distrust of politicians is also widespread in Germany. More than half of young adults from Germany, or 52%, said that they do not trust the government, while 45% distrust parliament.

The experts from the foundation warn that targeted measures are needed to restore faith in the ability of politics to solve problems.

Regardless of their age, German respondents are rather worried about the future. The survey found that 36% of younger people and 42% of older people expect things to get worse, for example in terms of climate change or living standards.

Young adults in Germany are on average more pessimistic than their peers in other countries.

A representative sample of 2,248 people from Germany, including more than 500 people aged between 18 and 30, were surveyed on their attitudes between February and April last year.

The survey data was then compared with identical surveys in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.