London — Support for far-right figures among young voters appears to be growing in several European countries. Much of the focus is on Germany, where the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is hoping to secure another victory in the upcoming Brandenburg state election in the east of the country on September 22.
AfD secured a resounding victory in the Thuringia state election earlier this month, winning 32.8% of the vote, well ahead of second-place Christian Democrats at 23.6%.
It was the first time the far right had won a state election since the end of World War II in 1945.
“More than a third of young people, almost 40% of 18- to 29-year-olds, [voted] for the AfD,” according to Ben Ansell, a professor at the University of Oxford and host of the podcast “What’s Wrong with Democracy?”
In contrast, only 1 in 5 voters over 70 years of age chose AfD.
The party is hoping young voters will propel it to victory in the upcoming Brandenburg state election.
“[Other parties] probably expected that the AfD is only a party for old people and that young people don’t vote for the AfD. That is exactly wrong,” said AfD chairman in Brandenburg Hans-Christoph Berndt at a recent campaign event.
What’s driving the popularity of the far right among younger people? Immigration appears to be a key factor, said Ansell.
“In eastern Germany, [AfD] are just really popular,” he said. “It’s a part of the country that is poorer than the other parts, that is less ethnically diverse and therefore reacts more to the new diversity than Berlin does, or other parts of Germany.”
“Some people have argued that it’s concerns about the war in Ukraine,” Ansell added. “Other people have argued that it’s a response to COVID, or a response to the housing crisis … it’s getting on the housing ladder and things like that, having the same quality of life they thought their elders had.”
The trend among young voters is not limited to Germany. In June’s European elections, France’s far-right National Rally was the most popular party among 18- to 34-year-olds, with 32% of the vote — much higher than over-65s.
National Rally’s 28-year-old president, Jordan Bardella, has 1.6 million followers on TikTok, a social media platform popular among young people.
“TikTok is short videos that aim to shock. The skill that populist parties have in making videos and finding political moments that are short, sharp and shocking — to get people excited about politics,” said Ansell.
Meanwhile, a recent study by El País newspaper suggested that a quarter of Spanish men aged between 18 to 26 — known as “Generation Z” — believe that in some circumstances, authoritarianism may be preferable to democracy. Among the so-called baby-boomer generation, aged 59 and over, the figure is less than 10%.
Preference for authoritarianism was also lower among female voters — a trend seen in other countries, said Ansell.
“It’s something that comes out actually most obviously in east Asia — that young men are reacting politically very differently to young women. In [South] Korea, that’s extremely stark, as young men have voted for explicitly anti-feminist movements. But you can see this huge gender gap among the under-30s opening up in all countries, including in the United States right now,” he said.
It remains to be seen whether such trends among young voters will be replicated in the United States in the presidential election on November 5. Recent polls suggest the Democrats’ Kamala Harris has increased support among younger voters compared to her Republican rival, Donald Trump.
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