Survey: Germans see no drop in bureaucracy under Merz

Cuts to bureaucracy promised by the German government have so far not been felt by most citizens and entrepreneurs, a YouGov poll released on Saturday shows.

It showed that 66% of citizens currently have the impression that the bureaucratic burden has remained roughly the same since Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition government took office last May.

And for some - 22% of those surveyed - the bureaucracy is now worse, according to the results, made available to dpa.

Just 4% think the bureaucratic burden has been reduced since May 2025, while 8% said they were unable to judge.

The survey was conducted between March 27-30 on behalf of the European Centre for Digital Competitiveness at the ESCP Business School in Berlin.

Coalition announced 'comprehensive rollback'

The coalition of Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) agreed to "a comprehensive rollback of bureaucracy" in its coalition agreement. This was to be accomplished by modernizing and reforming the system.

To ensure investments could take effect, it said it would "accompany all state action with efficiency gains and digitization."

But companies have not felt much of that, the poll, which also surveyed 558 company owners and members of management and the executive leadership, showed.

In this group, 31% said they had noticed an increase in paperwork, while 63% said the bureaucratic burden had remained constant since the current government took office. Just 4% of executives perceived a reduction in the bureaucracy burden, with 2% answering "don't know."

"People do not want any more announcements, they want the state to finally function simply," said Philip Meissner, founder of the Centre for Digital Competitiveness at ESCP.

Co-founder Klaus Schweinsberg said around 11 months into the current coalition's term, the survey results showed that the Merz had "clearly failed" on the core issues for competitiveness: digitization and cutting bureaucracy.