Study: The Government and Parliament are the least trusted institutions in Romania

The Army continues to be the most trusted institution in Romania while the government and the Parliament are among the least trusted, according to a recent INSCOP survey.

Almost 68% of Romanians have high and very high confidence in the Army, compared to 68.1% in March and 64.1% in January. The Church is second with 56.8% (compared to 55.1% in March), followed by the Romanian Academy with 45.5%, and the Police with 41.6%.

Meanwhile, 41.2% of Romanians have high and very high confidence in the Presidency (compared to 38.2% in March), 27.3% trust the media and 22.7% have confidence in the Constitutional Court. Only 12.4% have high confidence in the government (compared to 13.8% in March), 8.9% trust the political parties (vs. 11.3 in March), and 9.8% have confidence in the Parliament (compared to 11.2% in March).

When it comes to international institutions, 56.1% of Romanians have high and very high confidence in NATO, 55.3% trust the European Union, and 52.5% have high confidence in the United Nations.

However, the survey also revealed that most Romanians (76.4%) believe that Romania is heading in the wrong direction, only 18.5% thinking that things are moving in the right direction. The share of those pessimistic about the country’s direction increased compared to previous surveys - 72.8% in March 2019, 71.6% in January 2019, and 73.4% in November 2018.

Also, most Romanians consider the current economic situation of Romania (76%) as well as the situation in the education system (78.3%) or in the healthcare system (83%) as bad or very bad.

When it comes to the Romanians’ biggest concerns, corruption tops the list (84.2% of respondents said they are much or very much worried about this issue), followed by the differences between the rich and the poor (73.7%), the deterioration of the environment (72.2%), the state of the national economy (70.6%), and the possibility of an armed conflict in the area (44%).

The public opinion poll was conducted nationwide between April 12 and May 3, 2019, on a sample of 1,050 people aged 18 and over.

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