
Austria’s outgoing coalition government of the People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Green Party has witnessed the sharpest decline in trust ratings of any Austrian administration in the past 20 years.
According to the APA/OGM Trust Index, conducted by the Austria Press Agency in collaboration with the pollster OGM since 2003, the current government has undergone a record-breaking drop after an initial upswing in trust in 2020, when ministers and state secretaries scored an average of +9.1 points. By August this year, the coalition’s ministers had an average trust score of -13.3 points.
“Such a rollercoaster ride within a single term of government has never been observed before,” commented Johannes Klotz, OGM’s Data Scientist.
The Trust Index measures public sentiment by asking Austrian citizens how much trust they place in individual federal politicians.
Austria will hold parliamentary elections on September 29, which will determine the composition of the next government. Both the ÖVP and the Greens are hoping to remain in power.
At the start of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, the ÖVP-Green coalition saw a sharp rise in trust, peaking at +19.5 points. However, this was followed by a rapid decline, with trust slipping into negative territory by 2021. By April 2023, the Trust Index recorded an all-time low of -16.3 points for the government.
OGM head, Wolfgang Bachmayer, attributed the decline to public discontent over the handling of the COVID response, the inflation crisis, and a series of parliamentary inquiries that damaged the overall image of Austrian politics.