EU citizens' opinion on political pressure in justice system 2022

The share of European Union citizens saying that they distrust the judicial system because of pressure put on it from governments and politicians is at its highest in three Central & Eastern European member states, Croatia, Slovakia, and Poland. In these countries a majority of respondents are distrustful of their national courts and judges due to political interference, with Poland's right-wing government's attempts to reform their judiciary for political reasons having been a particularly high-profile case in recent years.

Share of EU citizens who highlight interference or pressure from government as the reason for lack of trust in the their country's justice system in 2022, by country

Characteristic	Very much	Somewhat	Don't know/no answer	Not really	Not at all
Croatia	48.7%	16.7%	25.9%	3.8%	4.9%
Slovakia	41.4%	15.1%	34.9%	3.6%	5.1%
Poland	47.3%	8.3%	37.8%	3.9%	2.7%
Spain	35.2%	7.3%	48.1%	3.1%	6.4%
Bulgaria	29.1%	13.2%	48.6%	3.7%	5.4%
Greece	22.7%	15.1%	57.6%	2.7%	1.9%
Slovenia	27.2%	9%	58.6%	1.8%	3.3%
Portugal	23.9%	12.1%	58.6%	1.9%	3.4%
Italy	17.7%	17.7%	51.7%	8.9%	4%
Cyrpus	24.2%	8.9%	62.4%	0.3%	4.2%
Latvia	21.4%	9.3%	64.1%	3.6%	1.7%
Hungary	22%	7.2%	65.6%	3.2%	1.9%
Romania	19.7%	8.1%	62.4%	2.7%	7.1%
EU Average	18.7%	8.4%	66.2%	3.4%	3.3%
Czechia	15.9%	11%	66.3%	3.7%	3.1%
Malta	17.3%	7.6%	71.9%	2.4%	0.9%
France	14.7%	7.9%	71.9%	3.2%	2.3%
Lithuania	13%	9.3%	72.9%	2.6%	2.2%
Belgium	13.5%	8.1%	70.4%	3.9%	4.2%
Ireland	7.2%	6.3%	82.4%	2.7%	1.5%
Estonia	6.1%	7.1%	84.1%	1.3%	1.4%
Sweden	5.2%	5.6%	85.3%	2.7%	1.1%
Netherlands	6.8%	3.5%	86.2%	2.2%	1.4%
Austria	5.3%	2.7%	89.8%	0.5%	1.6%
Germany	4.7%	2.7%	89.3%	1%	2.3%
Luxembourg	3%	2.5%	91.9%	1%	1.7%
Denmark	2%	2.8%	92.3%	1.4%	1.5%
Finland	1.3%	3.1%	92.3%	2%	1.2%

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Release date

May 2022

More information

Region

Europe, EU

Survey time period

January 17 to January 24, 2022

Number of respondents

8,888 respondents

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

Original question: " Could you tell me to what extent each of the following reasons explains your rating of the independence of the justice system in (THIS COUNTRY): Interference or pressure from government and politicians".

This sample includes all survey respondents, not just those with a negative view of their country's judiciary. Respondents who answered that they have a positive view of their country's judicial system are likely to not answer the question, hence why there is a large proportion of the sample in the 'Don't know/no answer' category.

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