Image: colourbox.de
At the same time, the already poor reputation of the banks is declining, and politicians and the employer organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Industrialists, are also losing trust. This is shown by the current APA/OGM trust index. Overall, trust in the institutions in this country remains high. The Ombudsman’s office, the police, the Chamber of Labor and the armed forces enjoy the most trust.
The trust index works by asking (in this case 1,028 people) whether you trust an institution or not. The balance of this results in a value of plus 58 for the Ombudsman’s office and plus 56 for the police. This is followed in the trust ranking by the Chamber of Labor (54), which was able to record an increase of four points compared to the previous year. In fourth to tenth place are the Federal Armed Forces (51), the Constitutional Court (40), the universities (39), the Court of Auditors (36), the schools (31), the tax offices and the health insurance companies (both 29). The Federal President (28) lost four points compared to the previous year and is now in 11th place.
Overall, in contrast to the recently published politician trust index, the basic trend among institutions remains positive, as OGM boss Wolfgang Bachmayer explained. A clear majority of the institutions surveyed had an increase in trust, only ten had a clear loss of trust. The judiciary and parliament recorded increases in trust (plus 6 each). The trade union federation also recorded a clear plus of 5 points – probably against the backdrop of demands for wage increases and inflation compensation. At the same time, the employer organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Industrialists, each lose 4 trust points.
The banks recorded the greatest loss of trust with minus 9 points, which is probably due to the rising interest rates on loans, their restrictive granting and the inadequate passing on of interest profits to customers. While the state governments (2) are slightly gaining trust, the political institutions at the local and federal levels are losing ground: local councils (17) and the federal government each lost five points, with the government ranking in second to last place with a balance of -39. Austrians only have even less trust in social media than in the government, with a balance of -58.
Editorial media with significant growth
According to the OGM boss, the fact that social media were specifically surveyed this time – separately from the editorial media – also explains the significant increase in the media’s traditionally low reputation. The editorial media recorded the largest increase in the survey with an increase of 16 trust points. The balance is still negative at -15, but the media is now ahead of the EU (-17), the banks (-24), the church (-30) and the insurance companies (-39) in the trust index. This can be explained by the fact that social media “no longer drags the media down with their bad image”.
more from economics
