It’s not just boomers, young people are voting far right too ( www.politico.eu )

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.)

moon ,

Gen Z/Millennials/Boomers are all terms to describe generations specifically in just America. Why are they being used when this article is talking about the EU?

RealPuyo ,

As an European I can confirm that we use those too.

Drusas ,

I'm curious what's you're from that leads you to think that's the case.

moon ,

The name baby boomer is literally from the baby boom after the US won WW2

Noedel ,

I'm not surprised by the male/female gap. The past decade, young men have been told that white men are the worst thing to be. The left has not provided any role models for young men.

The right has many.

drunkpostdisaster ,

As a white dude I sometimes think our suicide rate is a good thing. The left will never reach out and the other side are fascists. White men is what people think of in the alt right, they own us no mater how we vote.

ILikeBoobies ,

Odd take

drunkpostdisaster ,

How else would you describe it? because part of the problem is that it is absolutely true that white men gave us Trump so hatred to us is kind of justified. Hell, i grew up in a hick town and I have seen how hopeless it is for change in those groups its almost inherent.
And all though they are way more reasonable then conservatives liberals still want to ignore that women and minorities vote republican too, in fact two of the most talked about GOP candidates in the primary was a woman and the son of an Indian immigrant. which is a problem, but its still nothing compared to the views of most republicans who think school shootings happen because some dude in a dress read a book to some kids.
So yeah, suicide is easier.

ILikeBoobies ,

Don’t you view some trouble in writing out

white men gave us Trump so hatred to us is kind of justified

Followed by

liberals still want to ignore that women and minorities vote republican too

So yeah, suicide is easier.

Clearly it’s not going to change the outcome, just those who get to play

drunkpostdisaster ,

I am talking about numbers though. If white men did not vote we would never see another GOP president. Becuase yeah women and minorities vote for them too, but its still a vast majority of white men.

ILikeBoobies ,

You would have non-white conservatives running the GOP

Like those two you just mentioned

Substitute the token minority that they target for someone else if you want but it doesn’t make anything better

We can replace Christian nationalism with Hindu nationalism

Canada’s Conservative Party has promised mass immigration from India/fast tracking any that want to come here because they know they will vote for them. The same would happen with Republicans

Meanwhile our Liberal Party gets booed when they go to mosques because they are pro-gay. We had nationwide protests against gay/trans last summer organized by mosques. Even though the majority participating were your rural white people just because of our demographics

John_McMurray ,

It's like listening to a carnival mirror talk.

Socsa ,

As a white dude I don't feel like this at all. There are plenty of outspoken progressive men all over popular media, and at every level of society. It only feels this way because progressive messaging asks men to do a lot more soul searching, while conservative messaging is effectively information warfare designed to validate low effort biases and reinforce historical power structures.

John_McMurray ,

Name 3

CanadaPlus ,

In the EU.

In America, it's starkly divided by generational lines, with the remainder being down to race, education, wealth and urbanness, which actually makes me think what's going on in Europe is a somewhat unrelated phenomenon.

kent_eh ,

In America, it's starkly divided by generational lines,

Not as much as the "lol boomers" crowd would have you believe.

There's a lot more <50 at Trump's rallies than >60.

Same with the Jan6 traitors. Lots of them were <40

CanadaPlus ,

Jan 6 guys are nothing like a representative sample. Trailer park grandpa couldn't show up to that for multiple reasons. Even then, I'd guess a median age of 45 just based on the videos. The shaman guy was like 32 and he was kind of a baby.

I know less about normal Trump rallies, but I don't really need to because there's actual polling to rely on. MAGA youth exist, but they're underrepresented and even more heavily poor, white, uneducated and rural. Meanwhile, in Europe, there's basically no correlation. Young and old alike support AfD about the same.

What we have on this continent is definitely fascism, fueled by pure, barely-directed hate and hostile to democracy. In Europe, I wonder if it's more of a reversion to Japan-like policy, which might have been more natural for these ancient kingdoms all along. That's just a wild guess, but I hope so, because I like democracy.

John_McMurray ,

You need to leave your basement

CanadaPlus ,

Ooh, brilliant counterargument. /s

John_McMurray ,

No, you really need to get out and look around.

Cowbee ,
@Cowbee@lemmy.ml avatar

People are losing faith with the failing status quo, so some are (incorrectly) adopting a highly reactionary position to cling to what they percieved has been lost, rather than progressing along to Socialism.

This is a consequence of the long term failings of Capitalism, coupled with weak leftist movements and a lack of general theory-reading.

John_McMurray ,

Look, socialism never fucking works. Far-right governments, while unpleasant, do.

CanadaPlus ,

Ah, I see, you're one of them.

You lost the war; it wasn't close. No, they don't.

John_McMurray ,

One of what? Person not fucking delusional? Just look at all those successful communist countries

CanadaPlus ,

Yeah, communism hasn't worked impressively either. I'd still prefer them over the Nazis, especially as a Jew.

Not OP, to be clear, I got here through your post history because I wanted to check why criticising fascists made you so defensive.

John_McMurray ,

Mostly the bullshit and lies, not the criticizing fascists part.

Cosmicomical ,

This is like saying a meatgrinder is a good place to live because it works

John_McMurray ,

Yes I already said it was unpleasant yet effective. You felt the need to repeat it for some reason

Cosmicomical ,

Because that's a bullshit take. Effective at what exactly? Oppressing people? Killing minorities? Certainly not effective at making people's lives better, unless you are part of the ruling class.

John_McMurray ,

Yeah so you're having an ideological discussion while I'm having a historical one. However, fascism does tend to make the general populations lives better than the average under socialism. Either way you can't speak all that freely but less likely to starve than under communism.

(You're ignoring how good socialist governments were at offing minorities and undesirables for "the common good". Fuck man, socialism is like fascism on steroids)

Cowbee ,
@Cowbee@lemmy.ml avatar

Why do you say Socialism doesn't work? Why do you say far-right governments do? Is it vibes?

John_McMurray ,

General knowledge of the last 150 years world history.

Cowbee ,
@Cowbee@lemmy.ml avatar

What part of that general knowledge of the last 150 years of world history says that worker ownership doesn't work, and that fascism does?

echodot ,

Trust me you don't want a conservative government. They won't fix the problem they'll just seek to line their own pockets and then by doing so make everything worse.

tobogganablaze ,

This is not about conservatives, many of the countries listed here currently have or recently had conservative governments. The far right is a whole other level.

Asafum ,

Imagine letting conservatives ruin your economy and thinking "I need a more extreme version of this."

Propaganda is a hell of a drug...

gerbler ,

Conservatives make the world worse, they get booted out and liberals fail to fix it, they get booted out and then people look for a "strong man" who can cut through red tape and fix things once and for all.

The far right embodies that third person. An extra bonus of a far right rule is the Overton window lurches so far to the right that the conservatives can pretend to be centrist and the liberals pretend to be left-wing.

John_McMurray ,

Yeah to anyone honest about what's happening, it looks more like liberals fuck everything up, conservatives half ass repair stuff to some degree, liberals get back in and fuck it up even worse, conservatives make more half assed repairs but are unwilling to do what needs to be done because of liberal feel good fake altruism bullshit self serving sentiment. That's when the nasty fuckers of the far right start getting support of the young.

yeah ,

Whereas my perspective is that conservatives fuck things up then it swings left(ish) who can't deliver recover enough before the conservatives get to fuck stuff up again while the media is heavily favouring the conservatives (fueling your narrative) and on the cycle goes. So the back and forth and left creeping to the middle (where they see success) leaves the far right as an alternative - and current rhetoric makes it less of an acceptable outlier.

John_McMurray ,

Yeah that's your perspective, bur it's fantasy. Numbers dont lie but liberals do.

systemglitch ,

This is the result of the left focusing so hard on identity politics and immigration. The right didn't have to do shit... it was inevitable.

conditional_soup , (edited )

This is so frustrating to watch as an American. I spent much of my youth on the internet getting clowned on by Europeans for the consequences of my country's hard right policies. The UK has been deservedly getting clowned on for the consequences of embracing the Tories. It beggars belief that the same people clowning on the US and UK would then turn around and say to themselves "yes, but it will be different for us, it will work for us, our situation really is different, you don't understand". No, it won't be different. Pretty soon, you're going to be following the path that the Tories set the UK on, marvelling at how dysfunctional your government is, and hearing about how the only solution is even more gibs to the people who are already the most economically advantaged and the private sector. Before you click reply, just consider that you guys deserve to get fucking dunked on, because you guys spent decades laughing at other countries for doing this shit just to say "hmmm... but what if sticking the fork in the electrical socket works out for me?" I'm honestly sad and disappointed for Europe, not least of all because after years of deservedly shitting on the US for being racist, all it took was one big wave of immigration for you guys to hold up blonde dumbasses with bad hair and worse ideas as the solution to all of your problems.

"Oh, great bozo of the European trailer park, what is your wisdom to save our culture from the immigrants?"

"Deregulate sewage plants. You will certainly not regret deregulating sewage plants."

Enjoy your US-style healthcare system in a few years, I guess.

NOT_RICK ,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

I would always point out that European security has been subsidized by the American taxpayer for 70 years. Finally starting to see that change, I just hope idiots like Geert aren’t the ones leading that charge.

conditional_soup ,

I mean, not trying to sound like a pessimist as much as a realist. Even if Europe started paying the full sum of what we're paying in defense subsidies, I seriously doubt we'd cut that spending. Raytheon and Lockheed's investors are counting on us.

NOT_RICK ,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah you’re probably right. It’d likely just move the bulk of the expenditure over to Asia to contain China

Mrkawfee ,

Europeans have a long history of blaming foreigners for their problems when times are tough. This isn't really anything new.

undergroundoverground ,

Unfortunately, American politics is so toxic, its infected nearly every country its come into contact with.

Understanably, american money and election interference is the reason European politics is becoming more americanised. For example, it was regan who radicalised thatcher. It was American and Russian dark money that funded vote leave (brexit). It was the CIA who funded far right groups all over Europe. Its American, far right Christian groups who try to lobby to take away reproductive freedom for women etc. etc.

America is empire now and no ones laughing anymore.

WAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUP ,

Europe has had so many far right groups throughout history and they haven’t gone anywhere. You can definitely think of a few in recent history, not even mentioning Russia. You can just dismiss this away as some foreign influence, this is a problem the world is facing and it’s a problem with me and you.

vividspecter ,

Prominent gender gaps in the results, which is entirely unsurprising (men much more likely to vote far right than women). I think the left-right breakdown could be more explicit too, as in many cases the left wing votes are being split between a bunch of parties, with the right wing settling on only one or two. That's still in an issue in countries that use FPTP voting systems, of course.

moon ,

It's amazing that it needs to be said, but Boomer politics won't die with boomers. We'll still have the same problems, but people will be more desperate as we will have fewer solutions and resources to throw at them than previous generations

wewbull ,

A lot of people vote far-right out of despair. A "things are shit and can't get any worse" mentality.

The best defence against the right is government that actually works for the people.

De_Narm ,

That's not actually all that surprising. The far-right, at least in Germany, is far more prominent on social media. It sucks but I don't think we can prevent that. We have a lot of complex problems but social media favors short answers instead of complex ones. A lot of younger people simply lack the critical thinking to see these simple answers for what they are - bullshit. And I can't blame them, they have been exposed to this bullshit for most of their lives.

FlyingSquid Mod ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I was coming in here to suggest this. The right around the world, almost certainly with the aid of Russia's massive troll farm, has really stepped up its game in terms of internet outreach to young people.

cmbabul ,

I do agree that social media is a huge driver of our societal problems and not fixing them, but I think you have the order reversed, social media is extremely effective at transmitting short, easy answers to our problems because that’s what people gravitate to on the whole. Especially extremely scared and desperate people, and young people especially see a lot of reasons to be afraid about what the future is going to look like.

We haven’t even really gotten to ecoFascism yet, but I think it’s inevitable to rise as things continue marching forward without dramatic societal changes

Xanis , (edited )

I don't know how it is in Germany, though I am convinced our methods in the U.S to educate and school kids and teens actively hurt critical thinking skills. They're not taught to make decisions. They're taught to follow set rules, ask for permission, and be ashamed if they fail. They're not taught to learn, they're taught to work.

verdantbanana ,
@verdantbanana@lemmy.world avatar

some younger people like me are not allowed to vote because of bipartisan policies and laws

quit blaming us for everybody refusing to vote better people in

not our fault y'all refuse to vote better

Aurenkin ,

That sounds pretty shit. I'm pretty ignorant of EU voting laws, what kind of laws prevent young folks from voting? Is it a high voting age or are there even more restrictions?

ID411 ,

Being 12 years old

mindlight ,

It sounds like you're an American citizen. As such you're really not very relevant in the European election....

givesomefucks ,

In Europe...

KidnappedByKitties ,

Yes, as the blurb says in the second word or so.

givesomefucks ,

What you just did is the equivalent to replying all to a mass email chain telling people to stop replying all

otp ,

Why are you "all"? Lol

You're the only one who got the notification

givesomefucks ,

Weird you can comment on this chain without seeing it...

gravitas_deficiency ,

You must be fun at parties

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:


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.

In 2022, while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy received votes from every age bracket, data suggested the young favored left-wing parties more.

Bardella’s strong presence on TikTok might have something to do with it: Pollsters found that about one-third of young people said they rely on the app to follow the election campaign.

The survey results also don’t automatically translate into electoral success, as the researchers estimated just 30 percent of young people would end up casting a ballot.

“Flemish Interest is very well aware of this, and explicitly targets young women in its campaign to adjust its image,” said Peter Van Aelst, a professor at the University of Antwerp.


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