Status: 08/17/2021 10:20 a.m.
For millions of young people, the federal election is a turning point: They don’t know a world without Chancellor Merkel. How does this generation tick, what worries does it have and what wishes? An approach.
“Generation Merkel”, “Generation Greta”, “Generation Z” – there are many names in circulation for the first-time and young voters who can cast their votes in this year’s general election. It is the first generation that grew up with smartphones and digitization – always online, always available. Growing up in a hectic world in which there are many options – and little time to decide in peace.
They have grown up in decades of many crises – from the terrorist attacks of September 11th to the financial, migration and climate crisis to the corona pandemic. What makes these young people tick, who spent their youth in such turbulent times and who can now have a say in who will rule the country for the next four years?
Generation Y and Z – who are they anyway?
the Generation Y denotes young people who born between 1980 and 1994 became. Members of this generation have experienced the most formative years for their behavior and thus also their way of communicating without a smartphone. the Generation Z belong to people who born between 1995 and 2010 became. What is characteristic of this generation is that it is the first to grow up with the smartphone. In science, the relevance of generation designations is quite controversial. However, it is recognized that there are differences between the various age groups.
“Fun, Meaning and Safety”
“If I had to break down Generation Z into three terms, it would be fun, meaning and security,” says Simon Schnetzer. He is a youth researcher and author of the study “Young Germans”, in which he analyzes the worlds of young people.
“Fun is what motivates people in general,” he says. But just as important to many young people is the meaningfulness of their actions. “With everything they do, young people wonder much more than the previous generations what their contribution to society is and what impact their actions have on society in the larger context.”
And in times of almost permanent crisis – as is currently the case with Corona – young people also longed for security for their future. “They don’t know how to take their next school exam, whether they can get an apprenticeship, take a job abroad or what their first university semester will look like,” says Schnetzer.
No uniform generation
“Generation crisis” then? Political, economic and social crises have shaped the lives of many young people for some time, says Björn Milbradt from the German Youth Institute (DJI). Nevertheless, it is difficult to understand young people as a unified generation. “With ‘Generation Merkel’ or ‘Generation Greta’ one suggests that all young people have the same attitudes or are shaped by the same conditions.” But there are also many young people who could not do anything with Ms. Merkel or the environmental movement Fridays for Future.
Nevertheless – and both experts agree – the environmental crisis is a mega-issue among young people. “With climate change, many young people have become increasingly aware that political decisions in this area will have a massive impact on their lives,” says Milbradt. “It was only during the climate crisis that this generation realized that this problem affects them all and that it is politics that has to get this global problem under control,” says youth researcher Schnetzer.
The increasing importance of this topic is also reflected in the latest Shell youth study of 2019, according to which 71 percent of young people are most afraid of environmental degradation. In the Shell studies of 2015 and 2010, environmental issues did not yet play a prominent role. At that time, economic worries such as job loss or social injustice as well as fear of terror and war dominated.
First-time and young voters in the 2021 federal election
In the federal election in 2021 are around 5.1 million young voters, so people between the ages of 18 and 24 are called to vote 2.8 million first-time voters. If you look at the group of voters under 30 years of age, you get 6.7 million eligible voters. In total, in the election for the 20th German Bundestag, about 60.4 million Germans are eligible to vote.
(Source: Federal Returning Officer)
“Climate change has made the youth more politicized”
With the increasing relevance of environmental issues, the political interest of young people has also changed. According to the Shell study from 2019, 41 percent of young people describe themselves as “politically interested” – in 2010 it was 37 percent. Although this value remains at a similar level, the proportion of those who find it important is themselves Personally involved in politics is increasing sharply: from 23 percent in 2010 to 34 percent in 2019.
One of the most important points to get people excited about politics is “self-efficacy”, says youth researcher Schnetzer. What is meant is the feeling of being able to change things with your own actions. “This is exactly the feeling that young people experienced with the Fridays for Future protests and that made them more politicized.”
Young people take part in a Fridays for Future climate demonstration.
Image: dpa
Hardly any trust in political parties
However, they do not seem to have great confidence in the parties. According to the Shell survey, 77 percent of young people are satisfied with democracy in Germany, significantly more than in 2010 (64 percent). At the same time, 71 percent of them don’t believe that “politicians care what people like me think”.
The politicians have lost a lot of trust in the past few years, says expert Schnetzer. “Less through content-related work, but rather through putting other interests higher, instead of also listening to younger people.” This applies in particular to climate and corona policy.
Partly open to populist positions
This dissatisfaction also appears to make some young people more vulnerable to populist positions. In the Shell study, they were asked about their consent to deliberately populist, pointed statements – for example, whether they wanted to live next to a refugee family. The result: According to the study, 39 percent of young people are more cosmopolitan. However, 33 percent are classified as populist. Their share is greater among young people with a low level of education than among the more highly educated.
Last but not least, the election in Saxony-Anhalt showed how this can also be reflected in the voting behavior of young people. On the one hand, the Greens in the 18- to 24-year-old age group got a particularly large number of votes. On the other hand, in this age group, the AfD was the second strongest force with 17 percent of the vote – just behind the CDU.
Some have very different problems than the environment
So not a “Generation Greta” after all? At least at this point, the picture of the “green” generation is differentiated. Because among young people from socially weaker milieus with a lower level of education, the relevance of climate change decreases, while the importance of social security and economic development becomes more important, says youth researcher Milbradt.
“To put it bluntly, it is very luxurious to think about climate change when you live in a structurally weak region where the last bus line has just been abolished or the last youth club has been closed,” says Milbradt. As a teenager, you have completely different problems there.
Chancellor Merkel’s legacy
And how much did Chancellor Merkel shape this generation? Milbradt can imagine that Merkel’s deliberate, science-oriented political style “in combination with the crises, in some cases also influenced the view of young people on politics and society.”
Many young people think the fact that Merkel rules so soberly and steadily is very good, says Schnetzer. “Many of them think very socially and European, and still hold Merkel in favor of her stance on immigration with a view to the decision to take in thousands of refugees in 2015.”
A generation that wants to be heard
So in the end a “Merkel generation” after all? How they are called should not be decisive for the choice. What is certain, however, is that the first-time and young voters who will vote this year belong to a generation that is politically very active, informed and enlightened. A generation that has learned to make itself heard and stand up for its interests, ready for democratic dialogue – provided you listen to them.
If not, sooner or later this generation will revolt, says youth researcher Schnetzer. The Corona crisis took part of their youth from many. “And that’s something they criticize politics.”
The climate crisis could even rob them of their future.