Germany’s youth grow more polarised amid rising frustration

Ms Emily Wunsch voices the frustration of other young people in Germany when the 21-year-old dismisses the political mainstream as aloof and out of touch. 

“I feel like what matters to me isn’t a priority for most politicians – or for other voters,” Ms Wunsch said while refilling cups at the coffee shop where she works in the east German city of Halle. 

The dissatisfaction of Germany’s youth is a major theme ahead of

Feb 23’s election

as they are drifting to the left and right fringes. That polarisation sets up potential instability as the next government seeks to revive growth and stabilise the social system, with policies likely to come at their expense.

Because of Germany’s ageing population,

young people face pressure to pay for the pensions and healthcare costs

of millions of retirees. At the same time, the political power of the country’s youth is relatively limited. Less than 15 per cent of voters are under the age of 30, while nearly 60 per cent are over 50.

While the voting participation rate of young people is still slightly below average at 71 per cent, it has increased steadily since 2009, showing that youth increasingly want their voices to be heard. But higher politicisation, coupled with feelings of being ignored, is pushing more young people out of the centre. 

The Left party – which traces its origins to East Germany’s ruling communist party – has been the main beneficiary. But the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD,

has also successfully tapped into the unease

, and that is not unique to Germany.

In the 2024 European elections, 32 per cent of French voters under 35 backed the far-right National Rally – nearly double the 17 per cent of youngsters who voted for the AfD in Germany.

Germany’s youth have been shaped by disruptions of fundamental principles – such as the economic turmoil of the global financial crisis, the isolation of Covid-19 lockdowns and

the insecurity of war in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

.

“Before 2006, there was a general belief among young people that things would somehow work out for them,” said Mr Markus Steuer, youth director for the Protestant church in Lower Saxony. “That has diminished since the pandemic.”

That level of anxiety is leading to diametrically opposed political allegiances. The far-left youth movement Antifa often organises counter-protests against the AfD, whose Junge Alternative youth movement has been classified as extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. The group has recently been reorganised, in part to shield it from scrutiny. 

Many among the country’s left-leaning youth are accustomed to activism,

growing up rallying for climate protection

. But they have felt let down after the Greens – which saw record youth support in the 2021 national election – failed to deliver as part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government. The same goes for social issues like affordable housing, and many feel the Greens and Social Democrats are too soft in standing up to the AfD. 

After Mr Friedrich Merz – the conservative front runner for chancellor – relied on the support of the nationalist party to push through a hardline migration resolution, the Greens proposed a 10-point security plan partly aimed at controlling migration, and the Social Democrats boasted about a surge in deportations, shifting closer towards AfD talking points.

The Left’s co-leader Heidi Reichinnek struck a different tone. “You don’t compromise on right-wing extremism or racism,” she said, slamming the dithering of the centre-left parties on the evening after the resolution was passed in Parliament. Her attack resonated with young voters who reject the increasingly hostile rhetoric. 

“There’s so much talk about migration right now, but it’s always so one-sided,” said Ms Nastasia B, a 25-year-old from Berlin who plans to vote for the Left and asked not to use her last name while discussing politics. “Sometimes I have the feeling that a sense of humanity is lost. They are people and not just numbers.” 

To spread its message among Germany’s youth, the Left has been adept at using social media. Ms Reichinnek, the party’s 36-year-old fiery lead candidate, represents a different image of Germany with her tattooed arms and a working-class background from the east. More than 29 million people have watched her rebuke the Christian Democrats for pushing a migration crackdown with the AfD.

Like in many other countries, TikTok and Instagram have become essential platforms for the political culture of the younger generation. More than half of under-25-year-olds in Germany get their political news exclusively from social media. 

The AfD dominates these platforms, but the Left has recently gained momentum. Ms Reichinnek now has nearly twice as many likes as AfD lead candidate Alice Weidel on TikTok. Mr Merz has the weakest social media presence of all major candidates.

Support for the AfD has grown

as disillusionment pushes young people away from establishment parties that do not meet their expectations to fix the country’s problems.

Young people want the AfD to come in and disrupt the status quo, but do not necessarily want the anti-immigration, euro-sceptic party to stay, according to Dr Rudiger Maas, founder of the Institute for Generation Research. 

“They very, very much underestimate the mechanisms at play when a party like that is strong.”

Young Germans are also less sensitised to the horrors of the Nazis than older generations, and are more willing to look past statements from AfD leaders trivialising the Holocaust.

Instead, the focus is on regaining a sense of stability and national pride. Economic anxieties are especially powerful in the countryside and in Germany’s east, where job losses and hardship following reunification are more present. 

In the east German city of Zwickau – where the communist-era Trabant was once made and which is now where Volkswagen makes electric cars – “there is a lot of talk about jobs being cut”, said author and activist Jakob Springfeld. “That sometimes almost causes a kind of re-traumatisation among people in eastern Germany.”

Concerns about being able to provide for a family especially weigh on young men, who believe they have to assume the traditional role of the breadwinner. Rhetoric that scapegoats immigrants can therefore be appealing, according to Mr Lorenz Blumenthaler of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which seeks to counter racism and extremism.

“Young men are expected to be able to deal with and resolve crises, which of course they fail at. And then (they) react with aggression and toughness,” he said. 

The AfD taps into these insecurities. In a viral TikTok video, a party official declares that “real men” are right-wing patriots and that helps in getting a girlfriend.

It is not only an east German phenomenon. Mr Max Teske, a teacher at a school in Brandenburg, founded a hotline to help students deal with right-wing extremism, and it regularly receives calls from across the country.

“This right-wing mainstream has never really disappeared,” said Mr Teske, who faced threats for speaking out against extremism. “The AfD is now giving them a voice, and they can now be loud.”

When asked what has changed about extremist youth groups since the 2000s, when he went to school, Mr Teske said “at most the style of clothing”. BLOOMBERG