Ahead of the European election, striking data shows where Gen Z and millennials’ allegiances lie.

Ahead of the European election, striking data shows where Gen Z and millennials’ allegiances lie.

Far-right parties are surging across Europe — and young voters are buying in.

Many parties with anti-immigrant agendas are even seeing support from first-time young voters in the upcoming June 6-9 European Parliament election.

In Belgium, France, Portugal, Germany and Finland, younger voters are backing anti-immigration and anti-establishment parties in numbers equal to and even exceeding older voters, analyses of recent elections and research of young people’s political preferences suggest.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration far-right Freedom Party won the 2023 election on a campaign that tied affordable housing to restrictions on immigration — a focus that struck a chord with young voters. In Portugal, too, the far-right party Chega, which means “enough” in Portuguese, drew on young people’s frustration with the housing crisis, among other quality-of-life concerns.

The analysis also points to a split: While young women often reported support for the Greens and other left-leaning parties, anti-migration parties did particularly well among young men. (Though there are some exceptions. See France, below, for example.)

  • mozz
    5•7 months ago

    Only showing up to vote every four years, and assuming we won’t slide into fascism because you pushed the right button, is silly. On that we agree.

    Not using the power of the ballot box in addition to all the other much more difficult / impactful things which are required for real change is much, much worse. It’s like, “Oh no the wrong people are in charge! This is very unfair. Better just give up and let them do whatever then.”

    • @[email protected]English
      3•7 months ago

      The rise of fascism is always the result of a long strong of causes. In a democracy the final cause in that chain will always be voters, but I think it’s intellectually lazy to assume that makes the failure of voters “worse”.

      Most of the voters who don’t show up are just disinterested in politics for a variety of reasons. I don’t think there area many that say “Oh, no, a problem! Better ignore it”!

      Blaming voters might be somehow cathartic, but the voters you’re blaming aren’t going to care. That’s the way to go if you care more about assigning blame than actually addressing the problems.

    • TigrisMorte
      3•7 months ago

      Lots more elections than every four! Every Election, no excuses!

      Bellow I’ve filtered out the primaries, which often have issues not related to party as well, and excludes local elections.

      link at end:
      “2023 – November (Constitutional)
      Registered Voters
      17,759,273
      Voting Age Population (VAP)
      21,925,627
      Percentage of VAP Registered
      81.00%
      Turnout
      2,563,469
      Percent of Turnout to Registered
      14.43%
      Percent of Turnout to VAP
      11.69%
      2022 – November (Gubernatorial)
      Registered Voters
      17,672,143
      Voting Age Population (VAP)
      21,866,700
      Percentage of VAP Registered
      80.82%
      Turnout
      8,102,908
      Percent of Turnout to Registered
      45.85%
      Percent of Turnout to VAP
      37.06%
      2021 - November (Constitutional)
      Registered Voters
      16,968,756
      Voting Age Population (VAP)
      21,866,700
      Percentage of VAP Registered
      77.60%
      Turnout
      1,485,066
      Percent of Turnout to Registered
      8.75%
      Percent of Turnout to VAP
      6.79%
      2020 – November (Presidential)
      Registered Voters
      16,955,519
      Voting Age Population (VAP)
      21,596,071
      Percentage of VAP Registered
      78.51%
      Turnout
      11,315,056
      Percent of Turnout to Registered
      66.73%
      Percent of Turnout to VAP
      52.39” - https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/70-92.shtml