The kids are all right

While many might assume boomers are driving the growth of Europe's far right, it's in large part Gen Z. 16 to 24 year olds had the biggest vote growth for Germany's AfD in Sunday's EU election.

I’m in Frankfurt, Germany today, trying to figure out why German young people have suddenly started flirting with fascism. Europe’s far right may not have met the expectations of a “surge” in the number of their seats in the European Parliament on Sunday, with significant growth limited to France and Germany. But in those two countries, one trend is particularly troubling: unlike in Britain and America, it appears to be young people rather than boomers who are in large part driving the growth of Europe’s far right.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party may not have come as high as it was polling back in January, but they still delivered a shock to the system by coming second and trouncing the country’s governing center left. This was particularly shocking following the scandals the party has experienced over the past months, which were so incendiary they proved to be too much even for France’s Marine Le Pen, who expelled the AfD from her Identity & Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament just before the election. AfD leader Maximilian Krah said in May that he didn’t consider Nazi SS members to be “criminals”. His assistant was also arrested in April on suspicion of spying for China. Krah himself is suspected of taking money from Russian propaganda channels.

The most noticeable thing about Germany’s election result is that it exactly follows the old West-East Germany border. The former DDR has been enthralled with the far right for many years, nothing new there. But what is new, if you look at the figures across the whole of Germany, is the surprising number of young people who voted for AfD - even in the wealthiest areas of the West.

The AfD’s biggest success was among young people across the board. In the last EU election in 2019 the far right got just 5% of the young vote, who mostly voted for the Greens. In 2024 the AfD got 16% of the young vote, almost equal to the percentage of the center-right CDU/CSU. The Greens, who are now in government with the center-left and liberals, were largely abandoned by young people in this election.