NATO, the army and the European Union are the most trusted institutions in Poland, a poll has found. The government and two institutions seen as being under its influence – public media and the constitutional court – are the least trusted.
The survey on Poles’ trust in institutions has been regularly conducted by pollster IBRiS since 2016, allowing comparison of how attitudes have changed over time in response to events.
In the latest poll, published by news website Onet, 82% of respondents declared trust in NATO. That was up from 66% in January 2020 and 61% in September 2016. Distrust in NATO fell from 26% to 10% between 2016 and today.
Meanwhile, the army is now trusted by 79% of Poles, up from 68% in 2020 and 62% in September 2017. Distrust in the armed forces fell from 20% to 12% over that period.
The heightened levels of trust in Poland’s most important military alliance and its army come amid Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine, which has led NATO to strengthen its presence in Poland. The armed forces have also been prominently involved in responding to a migration crisis on the border with Belarus.
The third most trusted institution in Poland is the EU, with 62%. That figure has risen significantly from the 45% recorded in September 2016. During that period, the Polish government has regularly clashed with Brussels over issues including the rule of law and refugee quotas.
The biggest rise in trust since IBRiS’s last such poll was for the police, who rose to 61% from 45% in November 2020. That latter figure was likely to have been pushed down by accusations at the time that police were using excessive force against abortion protests. Previously, in 2017, trust in the police stood at 64%.
Third from bottom of the ranking stands the government, which is trusted by just 34%, the same figure as in 2020 but higher than the 27% recorded in 2017 and 2016. Over that period distrust in the government has also risen, from 55% to 61%.
Public media – which are used as a mouthpiece by the government – also received 34%, a figure that has changed little since 2016, when it stood at 31%. By contrast, 53% say that they trust private media, up from 48% in 2016.
The least trusted institution is the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), with 29%, down from 43% in 2016. Over that period distrust rose from 33% to 52%.
After the Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in 2015, it installed its own judges on the TK, including a new chief justice, Julia Przyłębska, who is a close associate of PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński.
That has led many to regard the TK as a “puppet” of the ruling party. The institution’s popularity was also hit by its 2020 ruling introducing a near-total abortion ban, which set of the largest protests in Poland’s post-communist history and which polling has regularly shown to be opposed by most Poles.
Another institution that has seen a long-term decline in trust is the Catholic church. The new IBRiS survey finds that it is trusted by 44% of Poles. While that is up slightly from 40% in 2020, it is down significantly from 53% in 2017 and 58% in 2016.
The church has in recent years been hit by revelations of child sex abuse by priests and failings by the institution to deal with the issue. It has also been accused of involving itself in politics, including by advocating for the abortion ban and its backing of PiS’s campaign against “LGBT ideology”.
Meanwhile, trust in the court system stands at 38%, down from 44% in 2016. PiS has justified its overhaul of the judiciary by arguing that it was intended to improve efficiency and trust. However, critics see the policies as a violation of the rule of law and note that courts often function worse than before.
Two institutions that were included individually for the first time this year are the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, where the PiS-led government has a majority, and the upper-house Senate, which is controlled by the opposition. The Sejm is trusted by 37% of Poles and the Senate by 45%.
Main image credit: NATO/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
