Belgium will lower the voting age to 16 for the 2024 European Parliament elections, adding over a quarter million new, young voices to the voter pool, Euronews reported on Monday, June 12th. Understandably, conservative forces are not happy and see the move as a direct attack on them.
By enacting the change, Belgium became the 5th country to introduce a separate age limit for EU elections, after Austria, Greece, and Malta were joined by Germany with similar legislation in November last year. All but Greece lowered the limit to 16—Athens only to 17.
Other countries could also opt to join them during the next year or beyond, following the recommendation of a 2015 resolution adopted by the European Parliament which urged all member states to extend voting rights to younger teenagers in EU elections.
If this does become a trend, that could spell bad news for conservative parties all over Europe. According to a poll published by the Pew Research Center ahead of the last EP elections, the younger demographic—especially in Western Europe—tends to vote for leftist and progressive parties a lot more than older generations and is more likely to demand carbon neutrality, advocate for LGBT-rights, welcome immigrants, and be more supportive of the EU.
No wonder why the EU recommends giving teenagers the vote. According to the conservative Flemish MEP Tom Vandendriessche, the very point of these legislations is to disenfranchise the political Right. As Vandendriessche explained to The European Conservative:
Belgium is a miniature version of the European Union. When the citizens vote out the ruling political elite in elections, they just go out and find new voters.
That is what the European Parliament did in the 2019 elections. They invested tens of millions in a get-out-to-vote campaign. That was specifically aimed at getting groups to the polls that they suspected would vote for more European Union. However, nationalist and conservative parties won, including in Belgium. So, now they have lowered the voting age in Belgium for exactly the same reason.
Now, according to demographic statistics, lowering the age restriction by two years will add some 270,000 young people to the Belgian voter pool. In addition to them, Belgium will also have nearly 900,000 new voters who came of age since the last European Parliament election.
Voting is compulsory under Belgian law—with an average turnout of 90%—which applies to EU elections as well, so it can be expected that the majority of new voters will show up next June to cast their ballots, and most likely to leftist party at that.
According to Vandendriessche, the fact that the country is run by leftists is outrageous in itself and is entirely due to the famous cordon sanitaire, the practice of shutting out nationalist parties of government, even if they win the election. Outplaying them, in fact, requires a seven-party coalition—such as the one that took a world record of 652 days to form after the last general elections.
Right now, Prime Minister De Croo’s liberal party is in seventh place, barely polling at 8%. In contrast, the two most popular parties are the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang and the more moderate New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), polling at 24% and 20%, respectively—yet, both have been forced into opposition.
“And that’s why they lowered the voting age,” Vandendriessche told The European Conservative, but also added that Brussels might be mistaken to think that all new voters will flock under the liberal cause. As he said:
They think young people are more susceptible to their Europhile message. They are trying to indoctrinate young people through media, education, and culture.
But I think they are mistaken. Young people see the consequences of mass migration, which results in Islamization and insecurity. My party, Vlaams Belang, was the biggest party in the last election among first-time voters. So, I think lowering the voting age will have no impact.
