Trust in Luxembourg government on rise, but opposition still favoured

The general economic mood in Luxembourg and voters’ trust in political parties and institutions remain good, according to the Wort’s spring 2017 Politmonitor survey.

The government, however, has largely been unable to capitalise on this and remains less popular than Luxembourg’s largest opposition party, the CSV.

The Politmonitor survey shows that 87% of the population believe Luxembourg’s economic situation is sound, with 76% characterising it as ‘fairly good’ and 11% as ‘very good’.

Ten percent of respondents think the economy is doing ‘fairly bad’, while none has characterised it as ‘very bad’.

These number follow a general trend that can be observed since December 2013, when only 52% thought Luxembourg’s economy was faring well.

Since then, the mood has developed positively almost continually and has now hit its highest score in the past four years.

Luxembourg’s residents also see their personal economic situation as being largely positive.

Eighty-six percent consider their personal financial and material situation — or that of their household — to be ‘good’, with 15% of that number describing their situation as ‘very good’.

Twelve percent of respondents believe their situation is ‘fairly bad’, and 1% ‘very bad’.

The results are similar to those found in the last Politmonitor survey in January 2017.

The mood concerning personal finances has developed positively along the same lines as the general economic mood, albeit less so.

It climbed from 76% of respondents thinking positively in 2013 to the relatively stable 86% at present.

With respect to Luxembourg’s place in Europe, 20% of those surveyed believe the country’s clout has increased over the past year, up by 5% compared with January 2017.

While 25% believe Luxembourg’s weight has diminished, this figure is eight percentage points lower than that of the previous Politmonitor.

Fifty-three percent believe Luxembourg’s standing within the EU has remained unchanged, four percentage points more than in January.

Growing interest in politics

Residents seem to be increasingly keen on local politics, with 80% of respondents indicating at least a small interest in the topic.

Of these, 12% of those surveyed (+4 percentage points compared with January) said they were ‘very strongly interested’, 27% (-3pp) were ‘strongly interested’ and 41% (+2pp) were ‘fairly interested’.

The percentage of people with little interest dropped from 19% to 16%, while 4% remained ‘uninterested’.

When it comes to citizens’ trust in politicians and institutions, neither the government nor the opposition, unions, employers or political parties managed to score higher than 49%.

Across all categories, more people expressed having trust than those who lack it, although by a narrow margin.

Trust in the government has risen for the third time in a row, going from 43% to 45% and finally to 49%.

This is the highest score since April 2014, when 55% said they trusted their government.

Trust in the opposition remained stable at 48%.

Of all political parties, the opposition party CSV continues to enjoy the highest trust ratings.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said they trusted the party against 38% who said they did not.

Government coalition parties Déi Gréng and LSAP follow behind at 48% each, while the DP stands at 44%.

Opposition parties Déi Lénk and ADR trail behind at 26% and 21%, respectively.

ADR (70%), Déi Lénk (62%) and DP (50%) all have to cope with the fact that more people expressed mistrust in the parties than those who expressed trust.

Although fewer than 50% trust the current government, a comfortable majority still believes it is functioning well.

Thirty-seven percent think the government is more or less in control of the current situation in Luxembourg, while 20% believe it has the situation well under control and 6% think it is ‘completely’ in control.

On the other side, 27% think the government is not really in control, and 9% think it is not at all in control.

The overall 63% of respondents who think Luxembourg’s government is in control of the situation are up by three percentage points from the past Politmonitor and by eight percentage points compared with one year ago.

When respondents were given the choice of a single party, the picture remains largely the same as in January.

Thirty-five percent said the CSV inspired most trust for them, leaving far behind DP (13%), LSAP (10%) and Déi Gréng (9%).

As 23% have indicated that no single party inspires trust for them, the government coalition seems to have some work to do.

Politmonitor survey

The Politmonitor survey, commissioned by the Luxemburger Wort and RTL, was carried out between May 8 and May 15.

A representative portion of the country’s residents, aged over 18, was surveyed.

They were chosen based on data by STATEC according to age, gender, region of residence, professional activity and educational background.

A total of 1,020 residents were surveyed, with 293 from the Central electoral district, 401 from the South, 189 from the North and 137 from the East.

Just under 50% of interviews were carried out by phone, 50.5% online.