Spaniards, increasingly pro-European and less confident in national institutions

With the exception of health and medical personnel, who continue to generate a good level of trust, Spaniards are becoming increasingly disaffected with their country's institutions, especially political parties (90% distrust), the Congress of Deputies (78%) and the Spanish government (73%). Such devastating data come from the Eurobarometer, whose results for the winter wave were presented at the European Union Representation in Spain.  

Other institutions, which are fundamental to sustaining the democratic architecture, although less rejected, do not even reach 50% of Spaniards' confidence: Justice (51% reticent) and local or regional public authorities (48% distrustful).  

This contrasts with Spaniards' desire for more decisions to be taken at EU level (2 out of 3). This is backed up by a considerable increase in the number of Spaniards who feel that they are citizens of the European Union (86%), five percentage points higher than the already optimistic figure of the previous Eurobarometer survey.  

This opposition between mistrust in national institutions and their corresponding trust in European institutions is what leads an overwhelming majority of our compatriots to yearn for more and more common policies for all EU members: in defence (84%), migration policy (82%), energy (82%) and even foreign policy (81%). Along the same lines, 7 out of 10 Spaniards (69%) consider that the voice of the European Union counts in the world, which has the implicit correlate that they think that Spain's voice is not sufficiently heard and appreciated.  

The data from the Eurobarometer sample do seem to coincide with those of most Spanish surveys. Thus, the main concern of our fellow citizens is rising prices/inflation/cost of living (54%). A year ago, this was the number one concern for the rest of Europeans and only the third for Spaniards, who have increased their difficulties in making ends meet by no less than 27%. This chapter is followed by the country's economic and personal situation, unemployment, healthcare and energy supply.  

It is striking that Spaniards have much more mistrust of the media than other Europeans (70% compared to 58%). A total of 68% of Spaniards consider political information obtained from social networks to be unreliable, a figure that rises to 78% when they answer whether they often come across fake news. This is what leads an overwhelming majority of citizens to consider disinformation to be a very serious problem for the country, and thus for democracy in general. Encouragingly, however, 55% say they "easily identify" disinformation.  

The sentimental component of Spaniards' attachment to their homeland also appears in their responses to their degree of attachment to their village or homeland (93%); to their country (88%); to the EU (70%) and to Europe (72%).  

Regarding the major European initiative, the NextGenerationEU Plan, both Spaniards and EU citizens as a whole (53% and 54% respectively) think that its 800 billion euros will be effective in responding to current economic challenges, although there is still a considerable proportion (36% of Spaniards and 31% of the EU-27 as a whole) who believe that the plan will be ineffective.  

It is also worth noting that Spaniards are far ahead of their fellow Europeans (71% vs. 52%) in terms of the enlargement of the Union to include new members.  

It was not among the exhaustive Eurobarometer questionnaire, but according to Lucas González, acting director of the EU Office in Madrid, it is clear that Europeans as a whole, including Spaniards, are increasingly aware of what is at stake in local, regional, national and European elections, which makes one hopeful that the European elections in 2024 will advance the process of European integration.