Millions of young EU citizens will be eligible to vote this year in the European parliamentary elections, between June 6 and 9, in all 27 member states of the European Union.
Social media, an increasingly explored way to reach young voters PHOTO Shutterstock
Data published at the beginning of April by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) show that millions of young EU citizens will be able to vote for the first time in the European parliamentary elections from June 6-9. Across the Union, more than 400 million people are eligible to vote in the 10th election to elect members of the European Parliament since the first direct European elections in 1979. In the first post-Brexit European Parliament elections, the number of elected members of the European Parliament will increase from 705 to 720, notes European Newsroom, according to Agerpres.
According to available statistical data, the largest number of first-time voters are expected in Germany (5.1 million), France (4 million) and Italy (2.8 million). The lowest figures are expected in Malta (20,000) and Cyprus (3,000).
On 17 April, the European Parliament published the Spring Eurobarometer, the last such survey before the European Parliament elections in June. Among other things, the study analyzed how interested EU citizens are in the elections, what is the probability that they will vote and what are the topics they consider important in the perspective of the elections. In total, 26,411 EU citizens aged over 15, from the 27 member countries, were interviewed. With regard to young people, the data for the 15-24 age group show how generation Z voters see the upcoming elections.
According to the survey, 51% of respondents between the ages of 15 and 24 said they were interested in these elections, compared to the average level of 60% of all EU citizens. 48% of the respondents in this age category stated that they consider it extremely important to vote in the European elections, a slightly lower result compared to the average level of 53% of all EU citizens.
At the time of the study, when they were asked how likely they were to vote in the European elections, 63% of respondents in the 15-24 age group said they would probably vote if the elections were held next week, the proportion being of 71% in the case of all EU citizens. For comparison, the turnout in the 2019 European elections was 50.66%.
The same Eurobarometer highlighted the priorities of EU citizens before the European Parliament elections. For young voters in the 15-24 age category, the three most important topics that should be discussed as a priority during the election campaign were climate change measures (33%), the fight against poverty and social exclusion (31%) and support for the economy and job creation (29%).
Ask what values the European Parliament should defend in the next five years, the respondents in the age group of 15-24 answered peace (42%), the protection of human rights in the EU and in the world (28%) and democracy (27%) .
No less than 86% of young respondents said that voting is important to ensure a better future for future generations, compared to 84% of all EU citizens.
In the European Union as a whole, voters under the age of 18 will be able to vote in June in five countries: in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Malta from the age of 16 and in Greece from the age of 17.
The extension of voting rights to people who have reached 16 and 17 years of age is in accordance with the long-standing request made by youth organizations. In its campaign in the context of the upcoming European elections, the European Youth Forum – a platform of youth organizations in Europe – called for a general lowering of the minimum voting age to 16 for all local, regional, national and European elections.
The organization claims that young people are already underrepresented in the European Parliament. According to the European Youth Forum, the average age of the members of the European Parliament is 50 years, but only six of the 705 MEPs are under 30 years old.
In the 2019 European elections, 42% of voters under the age of 25 voted in the EU as a whole. Although this was a significant increase in turnout for this age group compared to 2014, the figure was lower than the overall turnout in the European elections five years ago (50.66%).
The big challenge: mobilizing young people in the European elections
In an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE in February, European Parliament spokesperson Jaume Duch Guillot, director general for communication of the EP, spoke about the importance of young people's participation in the 2024 European elections and the challenges faced in getting them to vote. go to vote.
In the June elections, young people have “a great responsibility and they are the only ones who should be most interested' of result because 'what happens in the next five or ten years will affect them massively, more than anyone else'', Jaume Duch Guillot said in that interview.
''They feel European, they are European, they live in a European environment, but that does not mean that they have achieved this forever and that things cannot regress if they are not carefulDuch said.
The mobilization of young people to vote on June 6-9 is crucial, at a time when the phenomenon of Russian interference and Euroxenophobic movements overlap. “Practically, every day we see campaigns, sometimes more or less organized, larger or smaller, of misinformation in relation to the European elections”', noted the spokesperson of the EP.
He added that ''Russia has been promoting and in some cases financing anti-European movements for many years, obviously not only Eurosceptic movements, but even Euroxenophobic movements''.
In his opinion, this phenomenon is extremely harmful, and combating it is a very complicated task, as it requires ''a lot of coordination and great efforts to mobilize political forces and the whole society''.
The role of social media
Social media is one of the most popular places for young people to be socially and politically active, and politicians are increasingly exploring ways to talk to young voters online ahead of the European elections.
The Chinese social media application TikTok is growing in popularity among the younger generation and is becoming an element in the upcoming European elections, according to politicians and experts.
Young voters are more likely than the average population to find information on social media, explained experts Ingrid Brodnig and Markus Zimmer, from the Austrian social media research agency BuzzValue, in an interview with the Austrian news agency APA at the end of last year.
MEPs are now also trying to reach young people through TikTok. The German Greens, for example, intend to use TikTok to attract young people in their campaign for the European elections in June.
The main candidate of the European Greens, Terry Reintke, said that the measure is intended to show how important young voters and first-time voters are to this party.
Although there have been concerns about using TikTok to campaign, the Greens don't want to 'leave this space to the far-right'', explained the political leader of the German Green Party, Emily Büning.
Last year, the European Commission and the European Parliament banned their employees from using TikTok on work mobile phones for security reasons. TikTok has long been accused of not protecting young European users.
