They say familiarity breeds contempt. And in the case of Denmark’s politicians, it seems at least that the more familiar voters get with them, the less they trust them.

A study by the think-tank Mandag Morgen – in co-operation with Jørgen Goul Andersen, a professor of political science at Aalborg University, and the pollsters Yougov – has found that voters in Denmark trust politicians less than they did before the general election in June, DR reports.

Unlike 2011
Andersen explains that this is not par for the course in every election.

“It’s exactly the opposite of what we saw in 2011,” he said.

“Here acquaintance with the politicians or the new government actually made voters a bit more trusting towards politicians than they had been before the election.”

According to Andersen it’s difficult to attribute the drop in confidence this time around.

“We can’t say if it was the election campaign itself or if it was the result of the election,” he said.

“It could be both. We know from the different qualitative studies that people aren’t very pleased with the political debate. They think it’s a bit too tactical. We also know that right-wing voters were disappointed that there wasn’t a broader government but a very narrow Venstre government. So we can’t say exactly if it’s one thing or the other.”