Democracy? Yes! Does it work in this country? Jein. This is – to say it – the result of one of the supplementary survey among young people in Austria for the “Democracy Monitor 2024”, which the Social Research Institute has carried out on behalf of the Parliament for young people.
In particular, around 90 percent of boys in Austria see democracy as the best form of government. But only 44 percent think that the domestic political system also works well. In 2018 it was still 69 percent.
Accordingly, only about a third of the 16 to 26 year olds feel well represented in parliament. Less than a quarter currently takes his interests in political decisions into account. In 2018, both values were about twice as high, the parliamentary correspondence reported on Friday.
Young people are losing more trust
According to the study, these figures show a “representation gap” observed by the young people who have opened themselves in recent years. This is related to a successive loss of trust in the political institutions.
Between November 25 and 22, 2024, 303 people aged 16 to 26 were interviewed in the house in Austria between 25 October and 22 November 2024. In addition to their attitude towards democracy and their institutions, the study also about how young people come into contact with Democracy and parliament and how they learn about political issues.
Here parties find reasons for loss of trust
With regard to the political developments in recent years, FPö MP Maximilian Weinzierl was not surprised by the loss of trust among young people in the political institutions. He blamed the departing federal government and acting in the field of migration, pandemic control or inflation.
Heike Eder (ÖVP) explained the falling confidence with the earlier and current crisis symptoms and the associated uncertainty of the young people.
In addition to the global crises, Paul Stich (Spö) identified a lack of credibility by politicians as the cause of the skepticism of young people. Broken promises, but also a lack of measures, for example to secure an affordable life or to promote mental health, increased the impression that the needs of young people would not be taken seriously.
Yannick Shetty from the Neos also saw the concrete behavior of politicians as a decisive factor.
If this robbed the existence of the “climate crisis” and young people “a piece of the future”, one should not be surprised by the distrust of young people, said Barbara Neßler (Groenen).
Source: Krone
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