The anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany populist party was the most popular among young voters in Sunday’s regional elections, as analysis finds that establishment warnings of the rise of the so-called “far-right” are being dismissed by many self-described “centrist” youths.
The local elections held in two eastern German states over the weekend saw young voters flock to the right-wing populist AfD, helping drive the party to its first major election win in the state of Thuringia and a narrow second-place finish in neighbouring Saxony.
According to an analysis by the Elections Research Group, 36 per cent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 backed the Alternative for Germany in Thuringia, by far the most for any party and 11 per cent more than the previous election in 2019, broadcaster NTV reports.
Comparatively, the centre-right neo-liberal Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Left party tied for second place in Thuringia at 13 per cent.
Meanwhile, in Saxony, 30 per cent of young voters backed the AfD, a spike of nine points over the last election five years ago. Again, the CDU, the party which under former Chancellor Angela Merkel first “opened the gates” to mass migration, trailed in a distant second with 15 per cent among 18 to 29-year-olds.
The results back up a growing trend of young people backing the anti-mass migration party, with a survey in April putting the AfD as the top choice for Germans between 14 and 29-years-old nationwide.
German political psychologist Rüdiger Maas said that to many young voters, even those who consider themselves political centrists, the Alternative for Germany “is not perceived as immediately right-wing extremist.”
“Many young people told us: ‘The right-wing extremists won’t do anything to us, they’re not evil. Older people in particular seem to see this danger. This is completely underestimated,” he added.
Maas said that traditional political divisions of left and right are becoming less important to young voters and therefore “these extreme parties don’t slip to the margins.”
The researcher also noted that AfD populists also appear to have more success on social media compared to establishment parties like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, who suffered humiliating results in both Thuringia and Saxony, where the governing party only managed single-digit support in the votes.
Populists elsewhere in Europe have seen success in swaying young voters through social networks, including in France where 28-year-old National Rally leader Jordan Bardella used apps like TikTok to bolster his successful campaign in the recent European Parliament elections in June, in which the Le Pen party dominated to such an extent that President Macron immediately dissolved the French and called for snap elections.
Similarly, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has also been succeeding at using TikTok to reach an audience, to such an extent that commentators in Britain have warned that left-wing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to extend the vote to 16-year-olds could actually backfire and benefit Farage given his growing popularity among young people.
One of the main drivers of young people voting for more populist parties in Europe is a backlash against the mass migration policies imposed on their countries by strongly liberal-leaning older generations.
The importation of millions of foreigners into countries like France, the UK, and Germany is perhaps most felt by native young people, given the downward pressure it causes on wages in entry-level jobs and the coinciding upward pressure on housing prices, often a boon to older land-owning generations but a major impediment to young people looking to get on the property ladder.
While the AfD has been a leading voice against the mass migration policies of the political elites in Berlin, there has been a growing recognition amongst the establishment that the open borders agenda must come to an end, particularly in the wake of the deadly Islamist terror attacks last month at a diversity festival in Solingen and Mannheim in May, both of which were reportedly carried out by Muslim migrants.
At a memorial service on Sunday for the victims of the Solingen attack, which left three dead and eight injured in a mass stabbing, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier acknowledged that there needs to be a “nationwide effort” to enforce existing immigration laws and to pass new restrictions on asylum seeking to preserve the national identity of the country, a concept previously only expressed by the AfD.
“We want to stay this country,” Steinmeier told the crowd of around 450 mourners on Sunday. “And we can ultimately only remain this country if we are not overwhelmed by the number of people who come without being entitled to this special protection [refugee status].”
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