Young German Voters Preferred Radical Options
A woman wearing a vest with a sign that reads, “Here is the Left”, X/ @Agitacion_
February 25, 2025 Hour: 9:02 am
The Left and Alternative for Germany were the most voted parties among citizens under the age of 24.
On Tuesday, the polling institute Dimap published a study showing that a significant number of young voters abandoned the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Sunday’s elections.
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The Left, with 25%, and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), with 21%, were the most voted parties among Germans under the age of 24. The Greens, who had secured 23% in the 2021 general elections, managed to obtain only 10% this time, while the FDP fell from 21% to 5%. Estimates from other polling institutes are similar.
According to psychologist Rüdiger Maas, founder of the Institute for Generational Studies in Augsburg, there is a gender gap in that age group when it comes to voting behavior. While young men tend to vote for AfD, women lean toward The Left.
“Young men fear immigration and social decline, and AfD offers them solutions. Women fear right-wing populism and the questioning of feminism and diversity, which is why they vote for The Left,” Maas told the weekly magazine Der Spiegel.
“In no other generation is it so clearly visible that women tend to vote for the left and men for the right,” he added.
In 2021, the Greens benefited from the momentum generated among young people by the climate movement Fridays for Future. Now, the issue of the climate crisis has taken a back seat.
The liberals were punished for failing to develop their own political profile within the tripartite government that ruled for the past three years alongside the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens. They were perceived merely as a disruptive factor.
Political scientist Jasmin Riedl, from the University of the German Armed Forces, attributes The Left’s success among young voters to its clear opposition to AfD. Another factor is recent experiences, such as the pandemic, which have led people in this age group to prioritize issues like social security.
“This is a generation that experienced how quickly things can change due to the pandemic. The pandemic hit them hard, creating a need for economic and social security,” Riedl said, adding that the Greens have failed to address these concerns.
Additionally, The Left can afford to express its positions more radically since, unlike the Greens and the SPD, it does not face the risk of having to abandon them in order to join a national government coalition.
Klaus Hurrelmann, director of the “Youth in Germany” study—which is updated annually with surveys of young people between 14 and 29 years old—has explained the shift by stating that other issues, such as inflation, fear of war, housing shortages, and concerns over declining living standards, are now more pressing than the climate crisis.
According to him, this could explain why many young people turned away from the Greens in favor of The Left. Another factor in the success of both The Left and AfD among young voters has been their effective social media campaigns.
The conservative bloc, composed of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), which won the elections, has a firm policy—established in a resolution approved at a party congress—of not forming coalitions with either AfD or The Left.
The SPD and the Greens have formed coalitions with The Left at the regional level, but at the national level, such alliances are ruled out primarily due to differences in foreign and defense policy.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
