The minister is satisfied with his Bavarians, even “proud”. In the past few months, almost 6,000 people have taken part in a Bavarian-wide survey on the attitude towards life in the Free State. And what must say? The Bavarians love their federal state – a politician who is responsible for homeland can feel warm at heart. And so Home and Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) makes a blissful impression this Thursday when he presents the results of the “Heimatspiegel 2022”.
For example, 92 percent of the participants reached via the online survey answered that they like living in Bavaria. Only two percent stated the opposite. The feeling of home is also similarly high and according to the survey, there is no need to worry about the preservation of customs, traditions and dialects in Bavaria: 80 percent think this is important, even among the under 25 year olds two thirds agree .
“Home is the base and anchor,” said the base and anchor minister Füracker, emphasizing that people in the Free State felt comfortable at home even in times of pandemics, war and other crises. Nevertheless, only 60 percent of those surveyed believe that their own life will develop positively in the future, the rest are uncertain or pessimistic. You can read that as an expression of the various crises.
Between March 16 and May 31, 50,000 households were written to for the Heimatspiegel, 5800 participants aged 16 and over took part, the oldest person was 96. Füracker speaks of the “largest home survey ever carried out by the state”. . In order to motivate his Bavarians to respond, Füracker’s ministry awarded 1,000 tree sponsorships to the first 1,000 participants, so-called “home trees”. But even without the symbolic gift, many would have participated (for six percent, the tree was actually the main reason for participating), after all, social commitment and volunteering in Bavaria are “above average”, as the CSU politician enthused. According to the survey, the rate is 45 percent, with people in rural areas being particularly active on a voluntary basis (58 percent). The urban-rural divide in the areas of education and income as well as the compatibility of work and family goes in the other direction.
Finally, Füracker deserved an extra mention for the initiative of people with a migration background. Every fourth Bavarian born abroad is active on a voluntary basis, which is “particularly gratifying,” said the minister. From the results of the survey he deduced that Bavaria “offers everyone the opportunity to feel at home if they want to” – in this context he did not mention the deportations of even well-integrated refugees.
The survey results are now to be included in a concept called “Future Vision Home.Bavaria”, which is intended to provide recommendations for action and concrete implementation approaches for politics. In addition, they also flow into future measures of the Home Ministry. “In this way, we can gear our work even more specifically to people’s needs,” said Füracker, who held a second report for the cameras this Thursday: the state government’s eighth homeland report.
This shows that Bavaria’s population is continuing to grow, including in rural areas for the tenth time in a row. 13.2 million people now live in the Free State – many people that the Minister of Homeland can be proud of.