Increasingly dissatisfied with the conditions under which they live—the growing prospect of war in Europe, a precipitously declining standard of living, mass migration, and a bleak future in general—a large number of Germany’s youth now view the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) as the party which best articulates their concerns.
Findings from the 2024 Jugend in Deutschland study, published days ago, have revealed that 22% of Germans aged between 14 and 29 years old would vote for the AfD if federal elections were held today, making the rightist, anti-globalist party the most favored among young people.
AfD’s favorability among young Germans has spiked sharply compared to past years, rising from 9% and 12% in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and has come at the expense of the parties in the ruling left-liberal traffic light coalition.
Support for the Greens, which in 2022 stood at 27%, has tumbled to 18%. The liberal pro-business FDP, having largely kneeled to all of the dictates from the Greens and the SPD since forming the coalition, has seen its standing among youths nose-dive even more drastically, plummeting from 19% in 2022 to a mere 8%.
Commenting on the results of the study he helped author, Klaus Hurrelmann, a Professor of Public Health and Education at the Hertie School in Berlin, said:
The assumption that young people are left-wing is wrong. We can speak of a clear shift to the right among the young population. … The AfD has clearly succeeded in presenting itself as a protest party for the traffic lights and as a problem-solver for current concerns.
Among the chief concerns for young people is not climate change, LGBTQ rights, or gender ideology, as the mainstream globalist press might have it, but rising costs and a lower standard of living due to inflation (65%), the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East (60%), and overpriced and scarce housing (54%).
Deteriorating social cohesion, the managerial state’s disproportionate concern for migrants and asylum seekers, the growing risk of an economic crisis, and the prospect of poverty in old age are also worrying vast numbers of young Germans.
Youth sentiments reflect issues raised almost exclusively by the AfD.
Over half (51%) believe “the state cares more about refugees than about Germans in need of help” and reject the notion that “taking in many refugees is good for Germany” while53% agreed with the statement: “In Germany, you can’t say anything bad about foreigners without being called a racist.”
Notably, and perhaps counterintuitively, the respondents’ personal migration background had minimal impact on their views about asylum seekers. The study shows similar levels of concern over too many refugees between Germans with and without migration backgrounds.
Simon Schnetzer, one of the study’s authors, says the government “must definitely address this fear.”
In comments to The European Conservative, AfD MEP Joachim Kuhs called the study’s findings “a good signal that shows the entire future generation is not lost,” but stressed that it’s still “only 22% and there remains a lot of work to do.” When asked about the reasons behind the changing attitudes and perceptions, Kuhs attributed the cause, in part, to growing numbers of young people disconnecting from the mainstream press and tuning into social media platforms where the AfD enjoys a strong presence.
Kuhs’s take is shared by Hurrelmann, who also says that applications like TikTok, where the AfD is the party with the greatest reach, have played a role in reshaping the opinions of young people. Both the EU and U.S. governments have recently called for a clampdown on TikTok.
The youth’s increased pessimism and growing discontent, worryingly, is accompanied by a continued decline in their mental health. Levels of anxiety, exhaustion, and feelings of helplessness have continued to rise over the past three years despite the COVID-19 pandemic subsiding. More than one in ten survey respondents reported currently being treated for mental disorders.
The mood among Germany’s young people is clear. What isn’t clear is how the permanent political class will respond, if they do at all. So far, instead of addressing the concerns of its citizens through meaningful policy changes, Germany’s establishment’s modus operandi, as The European Conservative has chronicled, has instead been to incessantly smear and slander those who’ve abandoned the old parties as ‘fascists.’
