There are still questions left unanswered after this election, which was actually about Europe, but in fact was largely about German domestic politics. And the current government. Some of these questions revolve around the apparently unknown entity of youth. Once again, young voters, i.e. those under 24, surprised everyone by not voting as many people apparently expected.
Far more people voted for the Christian Democrats than the Greens. And 16 percent voted for the AfD. Wasn’t it still called “Generation Greta” a few years ago? Wasn’t it always the case that younger people tend to lean more to the left? Wasn’t their new proximity to the Liberals recently described?
It’s complicated. One of the simplest answers to the supposed movement to the right seemed to be found very quickly: TikTok, the fastest, most superficial and most popular social network of Chinese origin among young people, whose algorithms love simple and highly emotional messages, had to be to blame.
This answer was not entirely correct, of course. But it is not wrong either. TikTok is the medium of the fragmented, crisis-ridden times in which the youngest generations grew up and which shaped their viewing habits.
TikTok makes it easy for agitators of the extremes, who discovered it for themselves at an early age. It’s not that young people don’t know this. But they are also looking for answers that they cannot get elsewhere.
This week after the election, a youth study was published, for which teenagers were interviewed. The study says that a central feeling for them is powerlessness. What can be read between the lines is that adults are no longer taking away this feeling of powerlessness.
And certainly not from politicians. Instead of providing guidance, they themselves stumble through the crises. So the younger generation is looking. The winner of the election was not one of the large and medium-sized parties – but numerous small ones. There is no Greta generation, there is a generation of others.