Young voters in the minority
Especially for young voters, climate is the central theme in the elections this year. However, they represent only a small proportion of the German voter population: only 14 percent of eligible voters are younger than 29, while almost 40 percent are older than 60. This is one of the reasons why Angela (71) and Angelika (66) are there. also today. “Precisely because we older voters are in the majority, we must show solidarity with the young,” says Angela. “Life isn’t all about more, more, more.”
Angelika adds that a demonstration like this shows a great solidarity between the generations: “In politics everyone only pays attention to contradictions. But here are so many different people together who only want one thing: working together to do more for the better. climate.”
According to Klaus Hurrelman, professor of sociology at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, you can see exactly what political influence young people do have here: “As a voter they may be a bit underrepresented in numbers, but with their idealism they do have political influence at the kitchen table. “They talk to their parents and grandparents, and they take it to the polls. Otherwise the Greens wouldn’t be doubling their number of seats in the Bundestag in the polls now.”
Somewhere on the large field in front of the Reichstag, Ulrike -in her mid-thirties- is also standing with her two toddlers. “I think it’s important that my children, no matter how young they are, literally see that we have to stand up for the climate. There is only one earth, we have no alternative,” she says.
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