The established parties of the traffic light coalition and the Union are increasingly losing the trust of the middle of society. This is mainly because people with middle incomes feel a great deal of pressure to change.
The next federal election will take place in autumn 2025. The people described by the researchers as a “nostalgic middle class” feel pressured by constant appeals for change. But the “adaptive-pragmatic” middle, which is willing to change, is also dissatisfied because “the innovation backlog, the stuck digitalization, the sprawling bureaucracy” and the shortage of skilled workers are causing them problems. In an online survey in January 2024, 56 percent of the German population said they were optimistic about the future. In May 2022, 66 percent of those surveyed expressed high optimism in the current level of life satisfaction in the middle is still quite high. However, only the condition that this money would be used for future-oriented investments such as public schools, public transport or better climate protection is not a general brake for the vote.