Political orthodoxy tells us that younger voters tend to be more progressive on issues like immigration. But in recent years, Europe has seen anti-migrant parties surge in the polls and gain youth support across the continent.
In Norway, for exmaple, survey data shows that 24 percent of young people favour limiting immigration “to a large extent” and 23 percent “to some extent.”
Thirty-two percent of French voters aged between 25-34 backed the far-right National Rally in the 2024 European elections. In Germany, the hard-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) came second among voters between 16-24, winning 17 percent – an 11 point rise on 2019.
But why are young Europeans supporting far-right parties and is it actually about immigration?
One possible, seemingly obvious explanation would be that a large number young Europeans aren’t happy with levels of migration seen in recent years, something consistent with older voter cohorts. but experts say that doesn’t tell the full story.
“There is no one single explanation that leads young voters to vote for the far-right,” Toni Rodon,Associate Professor of Political Science at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona,tells The Local.
“The two basic explanations are the economic one and the cultural one. One idea,on economics,is that young voters are more likely to have a pessimistic outlook of the future. The reality of their economic situation, plus the viewpoint of their economic situation in the future, are all worse than among othre cohorts of people”.
Some view this shift therefore not as a policy preference or specifically anti-migrant position, but rather a protest against poor economic prospects and a generation of status-quo politicians viewed as incapable of improving them.
Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Goverment, media analysis research by ZDF Huete confirmed that the AfD is significantly more successful than other German parties on TikTok and youtube.
“Life was better under Franco” has become a popular catchphrase on Spanish social media, and in Britain Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has more followers on TikTok than the other 649 MPs combined.
There is no one headline answer to why more young Europeans are backing far-right parties. Some are simply anti-immigration. For others, it’s a protest or anti-politics vote and disentangling the cultural and economic causes underpinning them is difficult.
“The most likely answer,” Rodon says,”is that those factors,economic,cultural,plus the media going on around it,plus the political side of things,which inflates the rhetoric,combine in a sort of negative spiral”.
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What’s happening across Europe?
The team looked at why France deported 10 British activists involved in anti-migrant activities along the Channel coast, and editor Emma Pearson wrote a great 5 minute guide to
