Recent voter surveys say between 14% and 22% of under-30s would vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the upcoming European elections. But who are these potential voters?
At an Alternative for Germany (AfD) European election campaign in Berlin, two of the far-right party’s candidates, Dr Alexander Sell and Mary Khan-Holoch, discussed national pride and how the AfD hopes to make Germans proud of being German again.
The crowd was largely made up of pensioners. However, there were also quite a few young people in the mix.
Khan-Holoch herself is 30 years old, and she did not hesitate in her answer to the question of what makes the AfD so attractive to first-time and young voters.
“Germans feel afraid of becoming strangers in their own country,” Khan-Holoch told Euronews.
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In fact, Khan-Holoch believes former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of opening the borders in 2015 to allow refugees from Syria to enter amid a backdrop of war is what entices the young voters.
Much of the speeches made by Khan-Holoch and Sell debate the historical shame of being German, relating back to the dark Nazi chapter in World War II.
The party’s insistence on family values often translates to fervent backing of traditional gender roles and opposition to what they call “sexualism”, which their critics say is discriminatory towards the LGBTQ+ community and impedes basic human rights.
“What I hear from young people repeatedly when I am at schools is this whole LGBTQ+ community, that you are no longer allowed to criticise things without being immediately labelled as a right-wing extremist.”
Dr Bauer pointed out that the AfD tries to give the impression that if societies reduce immigration or flaunt their national pride again, all problems would be solved.
Yet, an increasingly online world promoting extreme language and replete with hate speech and violence still has to be addressed, as it remains one of the main reasons for the rise in support from younger people for populist parties such as the AfD.
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