this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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Ahead of the European election, striking data shows where Gen Z and millennials’ allegiances lie.

Far-right parties are surging across Europe — and young voters are buying in. 

Many parties with anti-immigrant agendas are even seeing support from first-time young voters in the upcoming June 6-9 European Parliament election.

In Belgium, France, Portugal, Germany and Finland, younger voters are backing anti-immigration and anti-establishment parties in numbers equal to and even exceeding older voters, analyses of recent elections and research of young people’s political preferences suggest.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration far-right Freedom Party won the 2023 election on a campaign that tied affordable housing to restrictions on immigration — a focus that struck a chord with young voters. In Portugal, too, the far-right party Chega, which means “enough” in Portuguese, drew on young people’s frustration with the housing crisis, among other quality-of-life concerns. 

The analysis also points to a split: While young women often reported support for the Greens and other left-leaning parties, anti-migration parties did particularly well among young men. (Though there are some exceptions. See France, below, for example.)

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[–] [email protected] 226 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (49 children)

This is so frustrating to watch as an American. I spent much of my youth on the internet getting clowned on by Europeans for the consequences of my country's hard right policies. The UK has been deservedly getting clowned on for the consequences of embracing the Tories. It beggars belief that the same people clowning on the US and UK would then turn around and say to themselves "yes, but it will be different for us, it will work for us, our situation really is different, you don't understand". No, it won't be different. Pretty soon, you're going to be following the path that the Tories set the UK on, marvelling at how dysfunctional your government is, and hearing about how the only solution is even more gibs to the people who are already the most economically advantaged and the private sector. Before you click reply, just consider that you guys deserve to get fucking dunked on, because you guys spent decades laughing at other countries for doing this shit just to say "hmmm... but what if sticking the fork in the electrical socket works out for me?" I'm honestly sad and disappointed for Europe, not least of all because after years of deservedly shitting on the US for being racist, all it took was one big wave of immigration for you guys to hold up blonde dumbasses with bad hair and worse ideas as the solution to all of your problems.

"Oh, great bozo of the European trailer park, what is your wisdom to save our culture from the immigrants?"

"Deregulate sewage plants. You will certainly not regret deregulating sewage plants."

Enjoy your US-style healthcare system in a few years, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Europeans have a long history of blaming foreigners for their problems when times are tough. This isn't really anything new.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 months ago

Humanity has that long history.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (11 children)

Unfortunately, American politics is so toxic, its infected nearly every country its come into contact with.

Understanably, american money and election interference is the reason European politics is becoming more americanised. For example, it was regan who radicalised thatcher. It was American and Russian dark money that funded vote leave (brexit). It was the CIA who funded far right groups all over Europe. Its American, far right Christian groups who try to lobby to take away reproductive freedom for women etc. etc.

America is empire now and no ones laughing anymore.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Europe has had so many far right groups throughout history and they haven’t gone anywhere. You can definitely think of a few in recent history, not even mentioning Russia. You can just dismiss this away as some foreign influence, this is a problem the world is facing and it’s a problem with me and you.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (9 children)

Must suck living in a place with 450 million people none of which can think for themselves and instead are just vessels for the thoughts of other civilizations

Own up to your own crap if you want to fix it, or don't own it and blame foreigners. See if I care.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (17 children)

Arguably the hard right foreign policies of the US from the last 10-20 years are responsible for a lot of the migrant waves Europeans are fearing. You guys blew up the middle east...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Yep. Dunno what else to say, we're absolutely responsible.

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[–] [email protected] 114 points 3 months ago (3 children)

That's not actually all that surprising. The far-right, at least in Germany, is far more prominent on social media. It sucks but I don't think we can prevent that. We have a lot of complex problems but social media favors short answers instead of complex ones. A lot of younger people simply lack the critical thinking to see these simple answers for what they are - bullshit. And I can't blame them, they have been exposed to this bullshit for most of their lives.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I don't know how it is in Germany, though I am convinced our methods in the U.S to educate and school kids and teens actively hurt critical thinking skills. They're not taught to make decisions. They're taught to follow set rules, ask for permission, and be ashamed if they fail. They're not taught to learn, they're taught to work.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

They're taught to follow set rules, ask for permission, and be ashamed if they fail. They're not taught to learn, they're taught to work.

This might be even more ingrained in German culture.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago

I was coming in here to suggest this. The right around the world, almost certainly with the aid of Russia's massive troll farm, has really stepped up its game in terms of internet outreach to young people.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I do agree that social media is a huge driver of our societal problems and not fixing them, but I think you have the order reversed, social media is extremely effective at transmitting short, easy answers to our problems because that’s what people gravitate to on the whole. Especially extremely scared and desperate people, and young people especially see a lot of reasons to be afraid about what the future is going to look like.

We haven’t even really gotten to ecoFascism yet, but I think it’s inevitable to rise as things continue marching forward without dramatic societal changes

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's amazing that it needs to be said, but Boomer politics won't die with boomers. We'll still have the same problems, but people will be more desperate as we will have fewer solutions and resources to throw at them than previous generations

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Also worth pointing out that only a slight majority of boomers are very conservative. If you look at the demographics of the last couple presidential elections, you'll see that only slightly more boomers voted conservative than liberal, and only slightly more younger folks voted liberal than conservative.

There's this impression that the distinction is much more significant than it actually is. As a liberal boomer, I'm a little sensitive about it.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 3 months ago (31 children)

People are losing faith with the failing status quo, so some are (incorrectly) adopting a highly reactionary position to cling to what they percieved has been lost, rather than progressing along to Socialism.

This is a consequence of the long term failings of Capitalism, coupled with weak leftist movements and a lack of general theory-reading.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 months ago (18 children)

There’s a lot of them right here on lemmy. If you don’t know what to look for, they’re the ones yelling at everyone not to vote. They’re the ones you’ll see on every post that’s critical of Biden, but they’re nowhere to be found n any news critical of Trump.

They’re the ones that either disappear, or resort to personal attacks when you simply ask them who else can win the White House if not Biden.

They’re all over lemmy. They are just counting on you not being aware of it.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

who else can win the White House if not Biden.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 months ago (2 children)

My young coworkers seem to believe that 250k refugees of which 100k got a house are the reason we have a housing shortage of well over 400k.

These kids are worse off than i am when it comes to housing, so how surprising is it that they vote far right.

One of them asked me: "so, you're not racist?" Nah "shame, really". Motherfucker forgot my family isn't from here and i've often been treated like subhuman trash for being a foreigner despite being born here and speaking the language like it is my own (because it is).

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (3 children)

They asked you if you're not racist, as if it's normal to be racist??

It's sad to see how people get manipulated to the point that they can't understand that even a natural population growth without immigration can cause a housing crisis, if we don't build and maintain the houses. And immigrants come to work anyway, which provides a disproportionately high value to the economy compared to what most of them are paid.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A lot of people vote far-right out of despair. A "things are shit and can't get any worse" mentality.

The best defence against the right is government that actually works for the people.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Which is why the right work so hard to assure Gov. does not work.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago

And why they dismantle the systems they're tasked with protecting the moment they can.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is exactly, literally true. The hard right folks in all branches of government are always throwing wrenches in the machine and then complaining that we have to get rid of the machine because it doesn't work.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Trust me you don't want a conservative government. They won't fix the problem they'll just seek to line their own pockets and then by doing so make everything worse.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is not about conservatives, many of the countries listed here currently have or recently had conservative governments. The far right is a whole other level.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Imagine letting conservatives ruin your economy and thinking "I need a more extreme version of this."

Propaganda is a hell of a drug...

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

To the surprise of no one. This is the result of neolibs that keep electing "moderates" which never fix any issues.

A great video for anyone that hasn't seen it yet:

Why liberals can't counter conspiracy theories

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

Prominent gender gaps in the results, which is entirely unsurprising (men much more likely to vote far right than women). I think the left-right breakdown could be more explicit too, as in many cases the left wing votes are being split between a bunch of parties, with the right wing settling on only one or two. That's still in an issue in countries that use FPTP voting systems, of course.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago

Probably because things are getting worse but liberal parties are more concerned with keeping up the status quo than actually improving things, so you get a lot of apathy and people taking a gamble which will not pan out well.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

When people find themselves in stress, they will always vote conservative to ensure their own survival. Right now, many young people can't afford housing, they have to spend more time working than living. This is not surprising.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Which makes no fucking sense since conservatives just make those issues worse.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Reactionary viewpoints are a result of crumbling and decaying societies. They cling to what once was, rather than trying to progress onward to Socialism.

Reactionaries are wrong, of course, but the origin of these viewpoints currently is from Capitalism's failures.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

in stress, they will always vote conservative to ensure their own survival

That isn't a safe bet, though.

The cornerstone of the conservative M-O is withdrawal of services and opportunities for the 99%. Sure, this sticks it to immigrants, but only because it shafts everyone but the rich.

And when those services go away - healthcare, unemployment protection, programmes sponsoring training so people can get back to paying tax sooner - they never come back under this administration. It's left as the sole focus of the fools who follow them and have to stoch a country back together out of the unmaintained underpowered mess of a system the elitist scum left them with.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (10 children)

In the EU.

In America, it's starkly divided by generational lines, with the remainder being down to race, education, wealth and urbanness, which actually makes me think what's going on in Europe is a somewhat unrelated phenomenon.

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