About 80 percent of those surveyed said they consider the economic situation in Germany unfair, an increase of 32 percent from the numbers of those who said that in 2021, and 60 percent of Germans said they see that society is divided, mainly between the rich and the poor, an increase of 20 percent from the number Who would have seen this in surveys conducted in May 2022.
These results come at a time when support for Chancellor Olaf Schultz and his coalition is declining, and the Alternative for Germany party is benefiting from the lack of confidence among voters.
Last month, the Alternative for Germany party won an election to choose a district leader for the first time, and is on course to win three upcoming state elections in East Germany.
“As discontent is growing across the board, the likely number of those who openly support right-wing populists is also growing,” the study said, adding that 60 percent of Germans expect the economic situation to deteriorate further in the next five years.
The poll of 2,016 people, in collaboration with public opinion polling institute Kantar, showed that after the Ukraine crisis, Germans blame both the government and Russia for price hikes, at 45 percent and 47 percent respectively, and 68 percent said they felt abandoned by politicians. During the cost of living crisis.
German inflation has been on a downward trend, but still well above the EU’s 2 percent target.
The German consumer price index rose 6.5 percent year-on-year in July, and the core inflation rate, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, was 5.5 percent in July, down from 5.8 percent in June.
A study by the Ifo Economic Institute showed on Monday that the middle class in Germany shrank between 2007 and 2019 to 63 percent of the population from 65 percent, lagging behind 13 European countries.
Low- and middle-income households have generally been hit hardest by inflation, Florian Dorn, a researcher at the Ifo Institute, told Reuters.
Research by WSI published in July showed that workers in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, lost about 4.1 percent of their purchasing power in 2022.
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