Shortly before the European elections, the German Teachers’ Association expressed criticism of the lowering of the voting age to 16. “I’m torn about whether it was a good idea to lower the voting age,” said association president Stefan Düll to the newspapers of the Funke Media Group. There are indeed many young people who are very concerned about their right to vote. “But a large proportion of them are not at all interested in politics with its many facets.”
Schools cannot force interest. It also depends on the parents, society and the young people themselves. Schools do enough for political education. All young people are prepared in the context of politics and history lessons, said Düll.
He spoke out against allowing young people to vote in federal and state elections. “Taking responsibility for the bigger picture beyond one’s own person is something that has to mature,” he said. It is not for nothing that adulthood is only reached at 18.
In the upcoming European Parliament elections on June 9, around 1.4 million 16- and 17-year-olds in Germany are eligible to vote. In 2022, the Bundestag lowered the voting age for the European elections to 16. This means that under-18s will be allowed to vote in a nationwide election for the first time. Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) called last week for the voting age to be lowered to 16 for the federal election as well.
The Federal Student Conference has now spoken out in favor of lowering the voting age in Germany to 16. “We think it makes a lot of sense and strengthens the political participation of young people,” said Secretary General Louisa Basner to the Funke newspapers.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, at the end of 2023 there were around 1.4 million 16- and 17-year-old first-time voters living in Germany who would be allowed to vote in the European elections.
According to a study, the willingness of the younger generation to vote is quite low. In a new Bertelsmann study, 57 percent of respondents aged 16 to 25 nationwide said they wanted to vote in the European Parliament elections on Sunday.
Of those surveyed between the ages of 26 and 69, 62 percent want to take part in the election. The figures are similar across the EU, but slightly higher overall.