Spaniards have been interested in politics for at least over a year. According to the latest survey on social trends, published this Tuesday by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS), 57.6% of citizens show a lot or a fair amount of interest in political issues – 1.6 points more than in the 2024 survey – compared to 20.6% who say they have minimal interest. The Internet and social networks are what have most influenced political decisions and opinions in the last two years for 30.4% of Spaniards. In second place appears television, decisive for 28.8%, and 23.6% of those questioned indicate that they decide to express this or that opinion or to vote or not based on what this or that political candidate says or does.
The 1978 Constitution is what inspires the most confidence among Spaniards – 14.1% say they have “maximum confidence” in the Basic Law – compared to political parties, which, on average, is what respondents cite the most as the institution or body that gives them the least confidence. Citizens trust commercial organizations more – with an average of 4.62 out of 10 – than the government, to which they give a score of 3.84. 41.1% of citizens say they have “minimal confidence” in the current Spanish government. This opinion on the Executive has not changed over the last five years for 48% of those questioned and 37.4% say that over the next five years, their confidence in the Council of Ministers will decrease. Opinion about political parties will also deteriorate by 2030, according to the CIS index, which assesses confidence in justice at 4.9 out of 10.
The biggest problems facing the world over the next ten years, according to those surveyed, will be wars and hunger, followed by poverty, lack of work and climate change. In this sense, the survey shows that Spaniards believe that in the next decade, inequalities between rich and poor countries will be greater than today (64.4%), that there will be more wars (49.8%), and that there will be more people emigrating from poor countries to rich countries (69.2%).
Most changes, for the worse
Over the next decade, there will be social and economic changes in society – many or quite a few, according to 69% of respondents – and more people think they will be for the worse: 39.6% say they will be positive or very positive and 40.9% say these changes, as a whole, will be negative or very negative. Respondents respond that there will be many changes in industrial robots, in biotechnology, in new energy sources, in computers, in genetic engineering, in new leisure technologies, in home technologies, in transportation and in artificial intelligence and that these changes will have effects on businesses.
Concretely, the CIS asks citizens if they consider that the number of robots and automatic work systems in companies will increase. Eight out of ten people answer in the affirmative. “And do you think that within 10 years the use of robots and automatic work systems will increase unemployment, create more jobs, or do you think they will have no influence on employment?” » asks the institute. 55.1% are betting on a higher unemployment rate, compared to 25.8% who believe that this will have no influence and 12% who indicate that it will be positive for job creation.
Citizens are pessimistic. They expect that over the next decade there will be greater environmental deterioration, more deaths from cancer, more serious epidemics like that of Covid-19, more natural disasters and more racism and xenophobia. On the other hand, according to the survey, society is moving towards loneliness. 79.4% of citizens say that in 2035 there will be more loneliness or isolation than today and that in the next decade there will be fewer family ties and more separations and divorces. They also predict fewer births and less family care for older people. Faced with this negative outlook, there is something that they believe will improve: the growing interest in personal care and health, which will be greater according to 71.5% of Spaniards.
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