On June 9, Romain, 19, will vote for the first time. This IT student from Brussels has had to wait until he comes of age to be able to vote, but his younger brother has not. Having just turned 16, he is also called to cast his vote on this occasion, although only for the European elections. Belgium, like Germany, Malta and Austria, will this year allow 16-year-olds to vote in the elections to renew the European Parliament. In Greece, those who have turned 17 can do so.
Reducing the minimum voting age, a path that Spain is also studying, is one of the responses that experts propose to increase the electoral participation of the young population and, above all, its democratic muscle. Although some surveys, as well as recent elections in various parts of Europe, suggest that a sometimes not insignificant part of young people feel tempted to use that muscle to reinforce the most Eurosceptic extreme right, just the opposite of what Brussels is looking for. .
“I’m going to go vote, I feel like it. My little brother, I don’t know if that much, but he will also go,” says Romain after class at the Free University of Brussels. Belgium is one of the countries where, according to Eurostat, the largest number of young people will vote for the first time on June 9. The fact that in this country the European elections coincide with the elections to also renew the federal and regional governments is an additional incentive. Furthermore, for those of legal age, voting is mandatory. Although for many young people it is not a question of avoiding a fine that, in any case, is very rarely imposed.
“I want to participate in political life, to be able to elect someone who shares more or less the same ideas. “It is our future that is at stake,” explains Younes, 18, at the door of his high school in Brussels. Next to him, Nicolas, 17, assures that he will take advantage of the legal change to vote in the European elections. “They are making decisions in which I, as a young person, do not recognize myself. And now they give me the opportunity to vote to change that, I think it’s a good thing,” he reasons.
Although considered a traditionally more disaffected electorate, in 2019, young people, who now make up 16.3% of the EU population, surprised by turning out like never before to vote in European elections. They came motivated, according to surveys, above all by the economy and concern for the environment, as well as Brexit. The latest Eurobarometer, published on May 13, indicates that the trend will be repeated: 64% of respondents up to 30 years old said they intend to vote in the European elections.
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“The importance of young people being involved in the future of Europe cannot be underestimated. I want them to recover the feeling of confidence and enthusiasm in our project because young people are the present and the future of the EU,” the outgoing president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, tells Morning Express, who is seeking to repeat her position in June and has even opened a TikTok account to appeal to the young vote. If the war in Ukraine has shown anything, she points out, it is: “We cannot take for granted the European democracy, stability and prosperity from which we have benefited in recent decades.”
One of the most impactful videos of the European campaign, which has as its motto: “Use your vote. If not, others will decide for you,” shows several grandparents telling their grandchildren their memories of repressions and dictatorships to remind them, precisely, that democracy is not assured. In less than a month, the clip has been viewed more than 190 million times, another sign that Brussels sees as encouraging.
Even so, there is fear of a detachment of this key sector of the population from the more traditional democratic processes. Something that the European Union wants to avoid at all costs. And he is sparing no effort to do so.
The promotion of voting from the age of 16 is part of them. In Spain, the ground is also being prepared, says the Minister of Youth, Sira Rego, for whom “the participation of young people in electoral processes is a guarantee of strengthening democracy itself.”
“What has been observed in other European countries is that anything that involves promoting the participation of young people, for example, in electoral events, increases the intervention, participation and activation of youth in public policy. And it is a question of justice,” he explained on his last visit to the Belgian capital.
From the space of coworking Brussels where the European Youth Forum (EYF) has its headquarters, María Rodríguez nods strongly. The president of this umbrella organization that brings together more than a hundred associations and youth groups from all over Europe has been focusing her efforts for months on promoting voting among the youngest.
“It is a question of democracy and rights. And to equate the rights with the responsibilities that we already have: at 16 years old, you can work. If you can work, you also pay taxes. But you have no ability to elect those who are going to decide what those taxes are going to be used for,” summarizes this 28-year-old doctoral student from Murcia, half of whom worked in school and political activism. “We know that there are many young people who, from the age of 16, are part of youth organizations, political movements, and they care about the things around them. If they want to vote and feel prepared to do so, why not?”
The EYF has actively cooperated in Brussels’ efforts to promote the youth vote. It has helped the European Parliament and Commission train 1,300 young people in techniques to promote elections, teach them how to run local campaigns and “how to encourage young people to vote,” explains Rodríguez. “A lot of effort is being put into this,” she says.The organization has also closed an agreement with Sony Music so that artists from its portfolio, such as the Spanish Rozalén, can promote the vote in their concerts and on social networks.
An initiative that is applauded by the Commission, whose vice-president Margaritis Schinas has even publicly asked that the American singer Taylor Swift, who has just started a European tour and who in her country managed to get thousands of young people to register to vote in the elections, join these efforts. elections that removed Donald Trump from the White House. Although for the moment the superstar, who disembarks in Madrid this week, does not seem to have paid attention to the Greek commissioner, he is not discouraged. “I still have some hope that Taylor Swift will surprise us in the next few days,” he jokes. Especially since, for the commissioner of the European way of life, young people can be a “wall against populism and hatred.”
Although the question arises as to whether young people will really be that retaining wall for the extreme right. According to the latest Eurobarometer, the issues that most move young people are human rights (34%), climate change and the environment (33%), health and well-being (29%) and equal rights, regardless of the gender, race or sexuality (29%). Many of those consulted for this report also cited the threat from the extreme right as a trigger to vote. But in recent elections, such as in the Netherlands or Portugal, the extreme right won a non-negligible part of the young vote. And in France, Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old leader of the ultra National Rally party, is sweeping young people: 32% say they will vote for him in June.
A vote perhaps more of protest than conviction, but one that should be a wake-up call to the EU. It is about, the representatives of young people emphasize, not only about courting their vote, but about taking them into account in their policies, forging them with them, and making them protagonists of them.
There is still a long way to go: although the average age of MEPs fell in this last term from 53 to 49.5 years, young legislators can be counted almost on the fingers of one hand. The EYF found in 2022 that in the European Parliament there were the same number of MEPs under the age of 30, six, as called Martin. Anecdotes aside, what the study confirmed is the underrepresentation of young people in the European legislature. This has proposed that the minimum age to be a candidate be harmonized, which in Spain and 14 other countries is 18 years, but in nine it is raised to 21, 23 in Romania and in Italy and Greece even 25 years. The States have not yet made a move. “You don’t have to be young to support youth issues. But if young people do not feel that they are represented in parliaments, it will be more difficult for them to get involved and vote,” warns the EYF.
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