Germans under 25 gave the AfD 16% of their vote in the European elections, with particular support in the east

Germans under 25 gave the AfD 16% of their vote in the European elections, with particular support in the east

Paul Friedrich, 16, could not wait to cast his first ballot and had no doubt which German party had earned his support in the watershed European elections.

“Correct, I voted AfD,” he said proudly in the bustle of the commuter railway station in Brandenburg an der Havel, an hour from central Berlin.

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland made particularly stunning gains on Sunday among young voters. For the first time in a national poll, 16- and 17-year-olds could cast their ballots – a reform that had been strongly backed by left-leaning parties.

After overwhelmingly supporting the Greens five years ago, Germans under 25 gave the AfD 16% of their vote – an 11-point rise – helping place the party second behind the opposition CDU-CSU conservatives and well ahead of the Social Democrats of the chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

The AfD tapped deep wells of support in the former communist east, winning in every state including Brandenburg, where it claimed 27.5% of the vote.

…

And his concerns echo those of many teenagers and twentysomethings in town: fears of war spreading in Europe, inflation, economic decline, “unchecked” immigration and, above all, violent crime, which they say is rampant when they use public transport or hang out in public spaces at night.

  • @ZK686English
    -13•5 months ago

    What? Where do you live? I live in near a big city in California, crime is out of control There’s no consequences for many street level crimes now, especially retail theft. I have personally seen people run into stores, grab stuff and run…while employees are just hiding, scared. They call the cops, who won’t come because they’re backed up with more “severe” crime in the city… so, it continues, and continues. Who’s to blame? The cops, who are already stretched thin? The homeless, because hey, they need to eat too! I mean, it’s nuts…I feel like I live in a third world country sometimes…

      • @ZK686English
        -11•5 months ago

        I’m glad that crime is down, overall, but it effects people differently depending where they live. I live in California, and drive for a living…traveling to Northern and Southern California often… while some violent crime is down, things like car break-ins, retail theft, petty burglary, and hate crimes have not really changed. Again, people will only react to what they have personally experienced. I was in San Francisco last week… it’s still a shit show. Homeless using drugs, crazy people walking around threatening everyone, theft… nothing has changed.

        • @EverythingispenguinsEnglish
          7•5 months ago

          Despite a slight trend upward. The crime rate is at historic lows in California. Crime being out of control is exactly what the fear mongers want you to think. They say it, you see a few news reports on it. Then you are more prone to believe it when you seem crime in your area. Yes there is a trend up in crime San Francisco, but are you seeing new crime or the same crime in new areas. It seems very likely that much of this crime already existed in the area. Unfortunately do to rising housing costs, and gentrification. People have been pushed out and are spilling on to the streets.

          https://www.ppic.org/publication/crime-trends-in-california/

      • @ZK686English
        -4•5 months ago

        So, make retail theft legal? I’m being serious…should we just not care if people steal?

        • @[email protected]English
          1•5 months ago

          No, but there is a moral distinction to be made between stealing your wallet and stealing from a multi billion operation. Would you agree to that?

                • @assassin_aragornEnglish
                  3•5 months ago

                  Simple example – lets say you’d lose 2% of your inventory per year to theft if you did nothing. Your gross income would go down by 2%, so you compensate by raising your prices by 2%.

                  Now let’s say instead you want to lose ~0% to theft. You’ll have to hire guards, or more likely, contract out to a security company. That’s now going to add to your annual expenditures, let’s say 5%. If you want to compensate for that, you’d need to raise your prices by 5%.

                  So, here’s the question – what’s actually the better option for the company? It’s hard to say without real life numbers and estimates. But basically, it wouldn’t be worth beefing up security if you’d pay more for that versus what you’d lose to theft.

                  And that’s only the monetary side of things. Having very public incidents if the thief doesnt cooperate would be bad for business. Worst case scenario, the thief fights back and has a weapon. You’re going to lose waaaaay more in sales than you would’ve if you just let them keep the contraband.

                  This is why a lot of companies are more lax on shoplifting these days. It just really isn’t worth it. Plus, a serial shoplifter is going to show their face again anyway, and you can quietly accost them preemptively.

                  • @ZK686English
                    -6•5 months ago

                    Again, what you’re implying is that we should just allow petty theft… even 3rd world countries punish people for this…

                • @[email protected]English
                  2•5 months ago

                  Those are the same department of costs if you operate a store. Either you have some amount of theft or you have security that prevents theft. Either way you’ll have to put the costs on your customers. If your customers feel your prices are too high that just means you are doing a bad job at balancing the two.

                  At a societal level it’s kinda the same. You can invest a lot of money into police or you can invest into social programs so that stealing doesn’t seem like a good option to most. You’ll have to balance the two.

                  On both levels it’s you the individual that has to bear the costs.

                  • @ZK686English
                    -7•5 months ago

                    I think you have it backwards. Social programs don’t help, because that takes an effort by the individual to get involved and be part of something. Most criminals and people who are going to commit crime, are not going to get involved in a social program. I don’t know how old you are, but when I was younger, I was absolutely afraid to steal because I didn’t want to go to jail. It seems nowadays, that fear isn’t there. I would argue more police presence is what a country like the United States needs. People forget just how big, and how many freedoms we have. Hoping that all these people, from all different walks of life and backgrounds, follow all the same laws, isn’t going to cut it. We need strict laws, more police, so that people know that crime, no matter the level, is not tolerated anywhere in the United States. I want to live in a country where people are afraid to break the law. I know that sounds crazy…