For the first time, 16 and 17 year olds will be allowed to vote in the European elections in Germany. Students are demanding that this should apply to all elections. There is opposition to this.
In the European elections on June 9, young people aged 16 and over will be allowed to vote for the first time in Germany, and the Federal Student Conference is now calling for this to be the case for all elections. “We think it makes a lot of sense and strengthens young people’s political participation,” said Secretary General Louisa Basner to the newspapers of the Funke Media Group (Wednesday) in support of the decision. Young people will experience direct influence by being involved in democracy.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, at the end of 2023 there were around 1.4 million 16- and 17-year-old first-time voters living in Germany who are allowed to vote in the European elections. Basner complained that although the anchoring of the right to vote in the Basic Law is addressed in politics lessons, there is often no direct reference to the European elections. Whether the European elections are addressed at all depends on the teacher in question. “It varies from class to class.”
The German Teachers’ Association is already ambivalent about lowering the voting age to 16 in the European elections. “I’m torn about whether it was a good idea to lower the voting age,” said association president Stefan Düll to the Funke newspapers. There are certainly many young people who are very concerned about their right to vote. “But a large proportion of them are not even interested in politics with its many facets,” Düll said. Schools cannot force interest. It also depends on the parents, society and the young people themselves. Schools are certainly doing enough for political education.
The teachers’ president spoke out against allowing young people to vote in federal and state elections. “Taking responsibility for the bigger picture beyond one’s own person is something that has to mature,” he said. It is not for nothing that adulthood is only reached at 18. Federal Youth Minister Lisa Paus (Greens), on the other hand, had spoken out in favor of a general lowering of the voting age.
Source: Stern
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