German politicians call for lowering voting age to 16
July 30, 2020
Fifty years after Germany lowered the voting age for federal elections from 21 to 18 years old, some politicians are calling for the age to be dropped once again.
"I am convinced that young people at 16 are very capable of making a responsible choice," German Family Minister Franziska Giffey told news agency dpa in Berlin on Thursday. "We should give them this opportunity."
Left flank broadly in favor
The idea has found support with the leadership of Giffey's own Social Democrats (SPD) as well as the leaders of Germany's Green Party and the left-wing die Linke Party.
SPD Chairwoman Saskia Esken said that her party wants the voting age lowered to 16 for all local, state, federal, and European elections in Germany.
"We must give young people the opportunity to participate and help shape the future," Sasken said.
"We live in a time where the maturity of the young generation begins much earlier. It would be nice if the legislature could see that and follow suit," Green Party leader Robert Habeck said.
"Sixteen-year-olds are no less interested and informed than 18-year-olds, said die Linke party leader Katja Kipping. "It is high time to let young people aged 16 and over have a say."
Read more: How young voters matter in European Parliament elections
Right flank broadly reticent
But Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) / Christian Social Union (CSU) alliance opposes the move.
"It has proven to be a good idea linking voting rights and the age of majority," CSU Secretary-General Markus Blume told dpa.
In Germany, full criminal responsibility, possession of a driver's license and other rights and obligations are linked to the age of majority, which is 18.
"This is also the correct standard for the right to vote, the supreme right in a democracy," Blume said.
"Young people are more committed today than they have been in a long time," he said. "The climate movement has shown that political participation is possible in many different ways without having to change the electoral law."
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party is also against lowering the voting age, while positions within the liberal pro-business Free Democratic Party were mixed, according to news agency AFP.
Some states have already started
A recent study of the subject from researchers at the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin largely supported lowering the voting age.
FU researchers compared the 2019 state elections in Brandenburg — where 16- and 17-year-olds were already allowed to vote, to those in Saxony, where they were not. They asked young people there about their political interest and knowledge.
"We can already see that 15-year-olds have a fairly pronounced interest in and knowledge of politics, and that this is independent of the valid electoral law in both of the federal states studied," explained researcher Thorsten Faas.
However, the study also found that the prevalence of these factors were largely linked to "privileged domestic or educational situations."
The voting age in Germany was lowered from 21 to 18 years on July 31, 1970 amid a global student protest movement.
kp/msh (AFP, dpa)