structural development

The new Lausitz Monitor has been published today. The Lausitz Monitor is an annual, representative population survey on structural change in Lusatia. The results can here as well as on the Facebook page . Process psychologist and study author Jörg Heidig summarized some of the main results for Plusmimus.com.

Support for the energy transition in Lusatia, which has meanwhile increased, has declined again

With regard to the energy transition, we observed a trend reversal from 2020 to 2021. For the first time there were more supporters than opponents of the energy transition in Lusatia. When asked whether the goals of the energy transition were fundamentally in favor of, more than half of those surveyed (57 percent) answered "yes" in 2021. In 2020 it was 45 percent. The proportion of those who rejected the goals of the energy transition was only 26 percent in 2021, while in 2020 it was still 38 percent. This trend reversed again from 2021 to 2022. Currently, 44 percent of the Lusatian people support the goals of the energy transition, while 37 percent reject them. The opinion on this in Lusatia thus corresponds to that of 2020.

A similar picture emerges with regard to the coal and nuclear phase-out. If the proportions of the population in favor of both exit scenarios were larger than the opposing proportions in 2021, these trends have reversed again. In 2022, the nuclear phase-out will be supported by just over a third of the population (35 percent). This proportion is even below that of 2020 (40 percent).

The encouragement for the expansion of renewable energies remains high, even if there are declining tendencies. For example, in 2021 nine out of ten Lausitzers (87 percent) spoke out in favor of the further expansion of solar energy, in 2022 it was still eight out of ten (81 percent). In the case of wind energy, support has fallen from 65 percent in 2021 to 60 percent in 2022. Only in the case of biomass has the popularity remained almost the same (70 percent in 2021 to 69 percent in 2022).

Life satisfaction in Lusatia as high as in Germany as a whole

In order to determine how the mood in Lusatia compares to Germany as a whole, we conducted another survey this year, in addition to 1,000 Lusatia residents, with just as many people throughout Germany. We now have representative results for both Lusatia and Germany as a whole for the questions we asked in the Lausitz Monitor. This comparison enables us to determine exactly where the atmosphere in Lusatia differs from that in the whole of Germany and where it doesn't.

Even if many Lusatians might suspect otherwise: the life satisfaction of the Lusatians is as high as in Germany as a whole (average value of satisfaction on a school grade scale in D: 2.8; in Lusatia: also 2.8). Only when it comes to the proportion of people who are optimistic about their own lives are the Lusatians, at 63 percent, slightly below the corresponding proportion in Germany as a whole (66 percent). Satisfaction with the personal living situation in Lusatia remained the same in a year-on-year comparison from 2021 to 2022.

Satisfaction with the situation in the region lower than the national average

While people in Lusatia are just as satisfied with their lives as people in Germany as a whole, things look different when looking at the region. The proportion of those who believe that the situation in Lusatia has improved over the past 5 years has fallen from 46 percent in 2021 to 36 percent in 2022. In Germany as a whole, 77 percent of people are satisfied with the situation in their respective region, in Lusatia the figure is slightly less at 70 percent. This is also reflected in the school grade scale. The average mark for satisfaction with the situation in one's own region is 2.8 in Germany and 3.0 in Lusatia. While an average of 66 percent of people in Germany are optimistic about the future of their region, the figure in Lusatia is 58 percent.

Younger women continue to be the least satisfied group

Looking at the satisfaction values ​​in relation to the region, it becomes clear that, as in 2021, younger women form the least satisfied group. The proportion of satisfied younger women in the age group up to 39 even fell again from 2021 to 2022. While 37 percent said in 2021 that the situation in Lusatia had improved, 30 percent did so in 2022. In 2021, 28 percent of younger women were satisfied with the current situation in Lusatia, in 2022 it was still 26 percent. The picture is very different for men in the same age group: in 2021, 47 percent of men up to the age of 39 were satisfied with the situation in Lusatia, in 2022 it will be 45 percent.

willingness to churn

Looking across all age groups, the willingness to migrate remains at the same level year-on-year. In 2022, as in 2021, 10 percent of the Lusatia population stated that they wanted to move out of Lusatia in the next two years. In the age group up to 29 years it is 45 percent, here too there was no difference from 2021 to 2022. In the group of 30-39 year olds, the willingness to migrate fell from 12 to 9 percent, while in the group of 40-49 year olds it increased from 6 to 13 percent. In the age groups over 50 (59-59 and 60+), the willingness to emigrate is stable at 4 percent.

Surprise at the reasons for leaving

This year we asked those who want to move away about their reasons. We had expected a high level of approval for some of the reasons given, such as attractive wages (top 2 of the list with 60 percent approval) or good transport infrastructure (top 3 with 59 percent). What surprised us was that "meeting interesting people" would be the most frequently mentioned reason for moving away (top 1 of the list with 63 percent agreement). In summary, the list of the most frequently mentioned reasons for moving reads as follows: attractive employers with good jobs, wages and career opportunities, interesting people, good infrastructure and leisure activities.

Conclusion

As the author of the study, what do I read from these results? And above all: What does that mean in practice?

First of all, despite the many somehow "critical" results, there is positive news: Those who live here are satisfied - just like in the rest of Germany.

This initially sheds light on the perceptible political mood. In my opinion, it is always good to compare the "perceptible mood" with a more objective mood picture, i.e. one based on representative surveys. It becomes clear that the mood in Lusatia is dominated by a few, but very loud voices, but - overall - is by no means as negative as it seems.

If, on the one hand, people are satisfied with their own lives, but are less satisfied with the situation in the region compared to the rest of the country, then you have to ask yourself why that is - and what would have to happen to make the region fit for the future. The Lausitz Monitor provides some concrete information here.

We gave respondents a long list of factors about the region and asked them to indicate how important each factor was to them and how satisfied they were with each factor at the moment. The items where importance coincides with satisfaction are effectively the region's strengths, and those items where there is a large discrepancy between importance and satisfaction are the region's weaknesses.

Strengthen:

- Local childcare options

- Playgrounds close to home

- Proximity to friends

- good supply of attractive building sites

- attractive local recreation opportunities

Weaknesses (Importance minus Happiness)

1. attractive wages

2. Cost of Living

3. efficient municipalities

4. Good range of jobs and/or apprenticeships

5. good public transport

6. good range of attractive employers

7. Public safety and order

8. Political Climate

9. Medical care close to home

Of course, the list of weaknesses is longer than the list of strengths. But from our point of view, what is particularly clear is that there are not "two or three things" that politicians can do to improve the situation significantly. On the contrary: In order to promote structural change, a clear vision of the future of Lusatia shared by many, more cooperation between districts and between the two federal states and more communication is needed. It becomes clear that politics cannot influence everything, but what politics should do in order to achieve significant effects: to work more closely with companies, for example, and to ensure that young women in Lusatia see other career paths than the ones that are all too expected (Pflege , education, sales, administration).

Above all, we see it as a communication task, because those who live here are satisfied. It's about the way we talk about it and the images we have of the future of Lusatia.

Our glimmer of hope: The people of Lusatia in Brandenburg are in a much more positive mood than those in Saxony. A start would be to work more closely together, to ask in Saxony what has gone differently in Brandenburg so far, to develop a common picture of the future and to make better use of the unique opportunities that the current windfall holds.

Text and photos: Jörg Heidig

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