German Opinion poll survey the biggest fear of Germans in 2020

The results of the new survey about German concerns surprised even researchers.

For 28 years, German researchers have been conducting surveys on German concerns for the insurance agency Brave Essen and Volkswagen (R + V).

The most recent study in this year showed the “year of Corona”; Germans are less afraid than they have been in decades. But of course, they are committed to wearing masks in public places and are careful.

However, only a few of them are afraid of contracting the emerging coronavirus.

Accordingly, the index of all concerns decreased from 39 to 37 per cent, the lowest value since the start of the poll in 1992.

In this context, Brigitte Rumstedt, head of the information center of the Insurance Agency (R + V), explained that “the Germans do not react at all with panic about the emerging epidemic”.

The same expert added, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, that “many of the Germans’ fears are receding,” and that people have a feeling that “everything is under control”.

These results were contrary to the results of the past few years, when the Germans were dominated by fear of war, terrorism, immigration and extremism.

The latest poll included 2,400 men, women and even teenagers ages 14 and over.

The poll, conducted between early June and the end of July, asked questions about the main political, economic, personal and environmental concerns.

The results concluded that the Germans’ fears of the Coronavirus epidemic were relatively less, at a rate of 32 percent, while 35 percent of those surveyed in a similar study last year expressed their fear of a serious disease.

The expert, Rumstedt, explains that “only one in three of the respondents is afraid that someone close to his surroundings will be infected with the Coronavirus”.

A survey of the German channel E. R. Dee’s result was very similar at the beginning of this month.

Despite the increase in the number of Coronavirus cases, and the Germans’ prior knowledge that the danger will continue; The Germans are still pretty much relaxed.

Only 42 percent of those surveyed fear globalization will lead to more frequent future epidemics.

“Due to the rapid spread of the virus globally, we expected to have higher levels of fear,” explains Rumstedt.

According to our results, people are more afraid that the virus will threaten their well-being and well-being more than their health.

Accordingly, economic concerns and the possibility of job losses were the main indicator of German fears.

Concerns about rising costs of living ranked second, at 51 percent.

The gloomy economic outlook for 2020 played a major role in influencing the moods of the study participants, prompting some of them to talk about a deep recession that the economy will witness.

Indeed, according to the federal government’s estimates, the gross domestic product will shrink by about 6 percent this year.

Professor Manfred G. was not surprised.

Schmidt from the poll results.

For years, the professor of political science at Heidelberg University has been providing scientific advice to the R + V insurance agency in this field.

And for him; There is still a state of uncertainty among the Germans, explaining that “there are fears of a second wave of the Coronavirus epidemic infection leading to a new economic downturn, and this contributes to the existence of widespread uncertainty regarding the future of the economy”.

In addition, there are other concerns related to the issue of unemployment.

Although it was “only” ranked 13 out of 20, at the same time 40 percent of Germans feared unemployment, which means an increase of 12 percent.

On November 3, US will elect a new president or re-elect the current president, Donald Trump.

For many Germans, re-election of Donald Trump is a “terrifying idea”, as the president of the United States may top their fears with 53 percent.

According to Professor Manfred G. Schmidt are “justified” concerns.

“Trump’s foreign policy has caused serious international complications time and again.”

The German political scientist sees the trade war with China or Trump’s attacks on allied countries such as Germany as an example.

Among the political issues that were previously a source of great concern and became less important – according to the poll results – is the issue of immigration.

The survey revealed that concerns about immigration have largely declined by more than ten percentage points, reaching their lowest level in five years.

In the current year, 43 percent of the respondents said that an additional influx of refugees and immigrants would lead to tensions between Germans and foreigners within Germany, that the large numbers of refugees would burden the state, while compared to the previous year, the percentage stabilized at 55 percent.

The survey, conducted by the insurance agency Brave Eisen and Volkswagen, sheds light on another startling result, which is that German citizens have regained their confidence in politics and politicians, as only about 40 percent of Germans expressed their concerns about the failure of politicians in their duties, in the lowest percentage than ever before in This millennium.

According to the authors of the study, restoring confidence in politicians has to do with what is seen as good governance in dealing with the Coronavirus spread crisis.

At the same context, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that he expects that, the Coronavirus spread crisis will have negative repercussions on state revenues in the long term.

Deputy Chancellor Angel Merkel added that this matter: “It will remain quite a challenge”.

The Social Democratic candidate for the chancellery went on to say that stalled growth will also reflect on tax revenues over a very long period.

Scholz noted that the implementation of the desired tasks in the next year would not be possible without resorting to new, large debt, “This is not a bad thing, as this is simply the Keynesian theory”.

It is noteworthy that the Keynesian theory of economics goes back to the British economist John Maynard Keynes, and it focuses on the role of the public and private sectors in the economy, as Keynes believes, contrary to the rules of the free market, that the state should intervene in some cases.

The theory holds that the state should spend more money in times of crisis in order to revive the economy.