Estonians' trust in Parliament, government much higher than EU average

According to the latest Eurobarometer study, Estonians have a higher level of trust in their government and parliament than European Union average, but trust their political parties less than the average, Public Broadcasting reports.

The Eurobarometer shows that more than half of the Estonian people, 51 percent, trust the government, which is 1 percent lower than last year. In the European Union on average, the state government is trusted by just 29 percent of the population.

The level of trust in national government among EU member states is higher only in the Netherlands (52 percent), Sweden (54 percent) and Malta (56 percent).

The Riigikogu is trusted by 39 percent of Estonians. The EU average is 30%. Trust in national government is highest in Sweden (67 percent) and lowest in Slovenia (9 percent).

The European Union is trusted by 52% of Estonians; on average, 37% of citizens of member countries trust the union. Out of member countries, the lowest score was recorded in Greece, where only 23% trust the EU. 

In contrast, only 13% of Estonians trust their political parties and the support has declined by 9% since last year. The Eurobarometer average is just 1% higher. In France, for example, only 5% of those surveyed trusted their political parties.

Latvia and Lithuania were near the middle of the scale for both indicators. In Lithuania, 32 percent said that they tended to trust their government, while 60 percent said that they did not; in Latvia, the figures were 28 percent and 64 percent respectively. 

The level of trust in political parties was even lower than for Estonia: just 9 percent of people in both Latvia and Lithuania trust political parties in their country. 

The level of trust in the EU in the other two Baltic countries is similar to Estonia: in Latvia 46 percent trust the union, while 36 percent do not; in Lithuania, 59 percent express trust in the EU, while 25 percent do not.