Germans are feeling deeply uneasy about the state of their economy, according to the latest ARD-DeutschlandTREND survey conducted by Infratest dimap. The June 2026 poll reveals that economic anxiety has reached levels not seen since the eurozone crisis of the late 2000s, reshaping the public's priorities and weighing on the federal government. The findings paint a clear picture: economic worry has moved to the center of German public life.
The headline figure is striking. Just 13 percent of Germans rate the current state of the German economy positively, as few as last seen during the eurozone crisis at the end of the 2000s. This single data point captures a mood of widespread dissatisfaction and signals how far confidence has eroded.
The pessimism extends beyond the present moment into personal expectations for the future. Four in ten respondents expect their own economic situation to worsen over the coming 12 months. This forward-looking gloom suggests that Germans are not simply reacting to a temporary downturn but bracing for sustained hardship.
The survey also points to a notably bleaker outlook in one part of the country. In eastern Germany, almost one in two people expect their personal economic situation to deteriorate over the next year, a sharper level of pessimism than the four-in-ten figure recorded nationally. The contrast underscores how heavily economic insecurity is weighing on eastern regions in particular.
Perhaps the most significant shift in this survey is what it reveals about the national agenda. The state of the economy has now displaced migration as the single biggest problem in Germany in the eyes of citizens. This reordering of priorities reflects how deeply the economic stagnation has registered with the public.
That shift is matched by what Germans now expect from Berlin. Dealing with economic stagnation is increasingly emerging as the central task that citizens expect from federal politics and the governing coalition. In other words, voters are looking to the government first and foremost for answers on the economy, and that expectation is becoming the defining test of its performance.
Public satisfaction with the federal government remains very low. Only 12 percent of Germans are satisfied with the work of the federal government, down one point from the previous month. The figures for the coalition's leading personnel are similarly weak. Among eligible voters, 16 percent give Chancellor Friedrich Merz a positive rating, and 21 percent rate SPD Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil positively. Defense Minister Pistorius is the only figure who still earns a majority-favorable assessment from the public.
The discontent reaches into the coalition's own base. Only about one in three supporters of the conservative Union bloc and just one in six SPD supporters are satisfied with the government's work in Berlin. Both Merz and Klingbeil win over only around one in two of their own party's supporters. When even loyal voters express doubt, it signals how widely the unease has spread.
How Germans relate to their parties reflects a mood of resignation rather than conviction. Roughly half of voters back their party out of conviction, while a similar share do so mainly because the alternatives disappoint them. Among AfD voters, distance from the rival parties is a particularly prominent motive, while for Green and Left supporters it is conviction that stands out.
These motives form the backdrop to the polling numbers. The AfD remains ahead at 27 percent, while the CDU/CSU falls one point to 23 percent, its lowest level since January 2022. The Greens slip one point to 14 percent, the SPD improves by the same margin to 13 percent, and the Left holds steady at 10 percent. All other parties would fall short of the seat threshold, including the FDP at 4 percent and the BSW at 3 percent, both unchanged.
The hard data behind the public's gloom points the same way. Germany's Council of Economic Experts now expects the economy to grow by just 0.5 percent in 2026, a sharp cut from the 0.9 percent it had projected the previous November. The advisors blamed the Iran war and the resulting spike in crude oil and gas prices, along with US trade policy, for weighing on the outlook, noting that the economy is expected to grow at all only thanks to government spending on defence and infrastructure.
The forecast also turned bleaker on prices. Consumer prices are now expected to rise by 3.0 percent in 2026, nearly a full point higher than predicted in autumn 2025, while high energy costs cut further into already declining industrial production and held back private investment. Beyond the immediate shock, the Council flagged longer-term drags: an ageing population and rising social-insurance contribution rates that shrink household incomes and dampen consumer spending.
Taken together, the June 2026 survey delivers an unmistakable message. Germans are experiencing a moment of profound economic doubt, with confidence in the economy at crisis-era lows, personal financial expectations turning negative, and the economy now ranked as the nation's foremost problem. This sentiment feeds directly into low government approval and a politics shaped more by disappointment than hope.
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