A poll conducted throughout Greece found that Greeks feel insecure, and they do not trust each other nor do they trust the institutions.
The poll by the research firm Dianeosis found 86.6 percent of Greeks said that “we need to be especially careful in our dealings with people.” The majority are suspicious that lurking everywhere is somebody who may be doing better than in devious ways.
That was the answer to the question about whether “most people are trustworthy,” the polls, What Greeks Think 2024, taken from January 15th to February 12th, show. This included more than 3,000 people over 17 years old.
Poll: Economy is the biggest threat to the future of Greeks
Nearly half of respondents said “Th,e biggest threat to the future of Greeks” is the economy although it is accelerating on the back of tourism and growing foreign investment. Nonetheless, inflation and high food prices remain problematic.
Second among Greeks’ concerns was the shrinking population, cited by 37 percent of people. Government programs offering bonuses to families having children have failed to ameliorate the problem.
Some 32.3 percent—with a rise of two percent since 2022—said the snail’s pace justice system which can take a decade or more to rule on cases with judges and the system having relatively few working hours is worrisome and should be fixed.
Next—with 27.3 percent ranking it—was transparency in the public sector and institutions deemed critical for accelerating economic growth, a big jump from 19 percent who cited it two years earlier.
It was show that 83 percent said by 2034, Greece “will be a country with many immigrants from many countries” although the government is frantically trying to keep them out and still has several thousand in detention camps.
In the evaluation of public services, the most positive opinions at 85.2 percent were expressed for the Citizens’ Service Centres (KEP) followed by gov.gr (82 percent). Firefighting services come in third with 79.6 percent expressing positive views.
Conversely, the health system (“hospitals-public health providers”) shows a significant decrease of more than 10 points from 45.9 percent positive and rather positive opinions in 2022 to 32.2 percent.
Insecurity dominates
As for emotions experienced by respondents, insecurity dominates, as it is mentioned by about half of the survey takers. Second comes disappointment with 44.3 percent. Next is anger with 29.7 percent.
The first positive emotion, optimism, appears fourth and at about the same levels as in 2022, but this is about 8 percentage points lower than the levels of 2019.
The findings of the survey confirm a deep crisis of political trust in Greece.
The majority express their distance either from the party they choose (43.1 percent) or from the electoral process. Around 34 percent state they simply vote in the elections and 7.8 percent say they don’t care to even vote.
Respondents were also asked to identify themselves in the ideological spectrum.
In relation to this, 20.5 percent said that Social Democracy represents their views, 19.3 percent cited Liberalism, and 13.8 percent Socialism.
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