The Opportunity Agenda is catching on in Germany too. A new survey shows a growing affection for conservative parties among young Germans.
Like young Americans who increasingly find a second Trump presidency more attractive than four more years of the failures of Joe Biden, young Germans are finding a lot to like in the economic program and immigration platform of the three major right-of-center parties in Germany.
The conservative Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the most popular of Germany’s multiple political parties among German’s between 14 and 29 with 22 percent support according to the findings of the 2024 Jugend in Deutschland a survey.
The AfD is the closest thing in Germany to the MAGA wing of the Republican Party in the United States. The AfD’s economic program calls for deregulation and less state control of industry. The AfD seeks a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine. And the AfD opposes Germany’s open borders immigration policies.
The second most popular party among young Germans according to Jugend in Deutschland is the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) with 20 percent support. The CDU/CSU most closely resembles the establishment Republicans in the United States.
The pro-business Free Democratic party get 8 percent support among young Germans.
In total, 50 percent of young Germans support the three pro-economic freedom parties.
In contrast, only 35 percent of young Germans support the three parties of the left on economic policy. The Greens have 18 percent support, the Socialists 12 percent and the former communists 5 percent.
Young Germans are drawn to conservative parties because of their messages on economic policies and immigration according to Klaus Hurrelmann, a Professor of Public Health and Education at the Hertie School in Berlin, who was interviewed by the European Conservative.
“The assumption that young people are left-wing is wrong. We can speak of a clear shift to the right among the young population. … The AfD has clearly succeeded in presenting itself as a protest party for the traffic lights and as a problem-solver for current concerns.”
Among the chief concerns for young people is not climate change, LGBTQ rights, or gender ideology, as the mainstream globalist press might have it, but rising costs and a lower standard of living due to inflation (65%), the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East (60%), and overpriced and scarce housing (54%).
Young Germans turned out heavily for freedom-oriented political parties in the previous German election in response to the COVID lockdowns and the country’s rising pension debts.