National politics inspires less and less confidence in the Dutch. That appears from research published Tuesday of Statistics Netherlands (CBS). A quarter of Dutch people over the age of fifteen had confidence in the House of Representatives in the last quarter of 2022, the lowest level since 2012, when this survey was first conducted. Confidence in politicians is also at its lowest level in five years at 21 percent.
Before the corona pandemic, in the first quarter of 2020, a minority of Dutch people aged 15 or older had confidence in politicians (31 percent) and in the House of Representatives (44 percent). After a brief rebound at the start of the pandemic, 44 and 58 percent respectively, in the second quarter of 2020, confidence declined again. Trust among the Dutch is even lower in other political institutions. About half have confidence in the European Union and in the city council.
Conversely, trust in other authoritative government institutions, such as the police, the judiciary and the military, has increased over the past decade. A majority say they trust these institutions. Police and judges can count on the trust of 77 percent, the army 64 percent.
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Trust in other people has slowly increased over the past decade, from 58 percent in 2012 to 66 percent last year. There is a noticeable difference among people with different levels of education. Last year, 40 percent of people with primary education as their highest level of education had confidence in their fellow human beings. This was 80 percent among Dutch people with a higher vocational education, and slightly higher among university-educated people, 89 percent.
The new CBS survey fits in with a trend that has developed in recent years. Last summer, a survey by the Social and Cultural Planning Office showed that confidence in the cabinet and the House of Representatives among the Dutch is very low. Half of the Dutch still had confidence in the cabinet, for the House of Representatives this was 51 percent. In the study, which gauged the mood in the country, almost half of the Dutch (49 percent) thought that things were going in the wrong direction with the country, while 19 percent were positive.