The key facts

  • Support for democracy as an idea fell below 90% for the first time — to 89.3%, mainly due to the eastern states
  • The share of people with a far-right worldview rose from 4.5% in 2024 to 6.9%
  • Anti-Muslim views are shared by 34.1% of respondents, and by 41.6% in the eastern states

What the study showed

Trust in democracy in Germany has reached its lowest level since measurements began, while far-right and anti-Muslim attitudes are rising for the second year in a row. These conclusions are contained in the 'Leipzig Authoritarianism Study 2026', presented in Berlin on Wednesday. The project has been running since 2002 under the leadership of researchers Oliver Decker and Elmar Brähler — actually Oliver Decker and Ailine Heller — based at the Else Frenkel-Brunswik Institute for Research on Democracy at Leipzig University; more than 900 respondents took part in the survey, who, according to the researchers, represent a representative sample of the country's population.

Support for democracy and the demand for authoritarianism

For the first time since the survey series began, approval of democracy as an idea fell below 90% — to 89.3%. The authors attribute this primarily to declining trust in eastern Germany, where support fell from 94.6% in 2024 to 85.7%. Satisfaction with democracy in everyday life is even lower: 33.3% nationwide, 22.8% in the east and 36% in the west — the lowest values in the history of measurements. Almost a quarter of respondents (22.3% nationwide and 30.9% in the east) explicitly supported the idea of 'one strong party that embodies the national community as a whole'. 'Our democracy is under great pressure. It has lost recognition among the population. It is alarming how strongly its place is being taken by authoritarian longing,' concluded social psychologist and study author Oliver Decker.

Growth of far-right and anti-Muslim attitudes

The share of people with a firmly far-right worldview rose from 4.5% in 2024 to 6.9% — the highest since 2014; in the eastern states this figure reaches 8.5%. The long decline recorded since 2002 has reversed: researchers warned that 'far-right views are becoming socially acceptable again', and noted that such growth over two consecutive surveys was last observed after the 2008 banking crisis. Anti-Muslim views are shared by 34.1% of respondents (33.2% in 2024 and 26.5% in 2022); in the eastern states — 41.6%, in the west — 32.2%. The indicator was calculated based on agreement with sweeping prejudiced statements such as 'Immigration of Muslims to Germany should be banned' and 'Because of the many Muslims here, I sometimes feel like a stranger in my own country'. Xenophobic statements are supported by 19.9% of respondents — 27.7% in the east and 18% in the west. Chauvinistic national pride reached 19.9% — a record for the entire series of studies.

Link with AfD and rising antisemitism

Among those with a far-right worldview, supporters of 'Alternative for Germany' predominate: 58.5% of this group said they had voted for the party. According to the study's authors, 'with its harsh rhetoric, the AfD promises to realise the political goals of far-right ideology' and offers a political home to supporters of such views, while simultaneously positioning itself as a force capable of attracting broad sections of society. Antisemitic attitudes have more than doubled since 2022, noted study co-author Johannes Kiess, who called on politicians at all levels to seek countermeasures. For 16% of respondents, the decisive factor behind antisemitic views is the policy of the Israeli government — also a record for the long-term observation period; while in 2020 this figure was noticeably higher in the east (12% versus 8.4% in the west), the values have now evened out, and in the west Israel-related antisemitism is even somewhat stronger.

Alienation from the present and individual shifts

Almost 15% of respondents explicitly agreed that 'everything must collapse so that something new can emerge', and almost one in three believes that 'something radical is needed to change the current situation' (another 29.1% partly agree). The researchers recorded a link between this 'longing for catastrophe' and more pronounced antisemitic views and a preference for certain parties. At the same time, an unexpected shift was also recorded: the share of those agreeing with anti-feminist statements in the east fell over two years from 34.6% to 17.8%, while in the west it declined only from 19.6% to 18.4% — previously the gap between east and west had been significant. The authors end the study with cautious optimism: despite the 'alarming' results, long-term data show that the growth of far-right attitudes has previously been followed by decline, and that, in addition to the influence of societal crises, political actions and their perception by society play a key role.