young Germans aged 16 to 18 vote for the first time during the European elections.

The Germans are voting on Sunday for the European elections, with something new: 1.3 million young people will be able to take part in the vote, after having been prepared in class.

In Germany, young people aged 16 to 18 will, for the first time, be allowed to participate in the European elections organized on June 9 in the country. The reform of the electoral code adopted in 2023 and debated for a long time in advance, opens the polls to 1.3 million young voters. franceinfo went to meet them, before this first electoral experience.

It’s the end of classes for a small group of high school students from Berlin. With bags on their backs, the 10th grade students, the equivalent of the second grade in France, head to their bikes or to the bus stop in front of the school. Sunday’s elections? These 16-year-olds prepared for it in class: “It’s a very good thing that we can vote, begins a teenage girl. My girlfriend and I prepared well. The school organized youth elections and during politics lessons, everything was explained to us.” This other high school student is still in uncertainty, not knowing “Not yet” who to vote for. “I am finding out information, on social media for example, especially on TikTok”, adds the young man. Another puts it into perspective: “Most people I know, and I do too, generally vote like their parents or at least in the same direction as their parents.”

It took several legislatures to get there. Conservatives have long opposed lowering the legal voting age. Olaf Scholz and his coalition made this one of their electoral promises. Political scientist Anjo Funke from the Free University of Berlin welcomes the reform: “I always thought that these young people were apolitical. But that is not the case at all. Some of them go to active movements like Friday for Future, many get involved in animal rights parties, or atypical groups. Others, especially in the East, vote for the AfD.”

“They don’t want anything to do with traditional parties because they find them boring.”

Anjo Funke, political scientist at the Free University of Berlin

franceinfo

During the week leading up to the election, 60,000 young people across the country participated in a sort of election dress rehearsal in their schools. The ballot, already counted, gives an overview of their political opinions. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), the two traditional parties, each obtained 20% of the vote. The Greens and the far right come in third and fourth position, at 13%. But with peaks of 30% for the extreme right in the former GDR.