Between Fear and Algorithms – Why Young Voters Love Extremes

Young, political, undecided - and ready for the big upheaval. That's how you could sum up the voting behavior of 18 to 24 year olds in the federal election. Where the FDP and the Greens once triumphed, the political fringes have now taken over. The Left Party is achieving record results , as is the AfD. In between? Emptiness.

Young voters are fickle by nature. They are not yet committed to a party, sometimes here, sometimes there. That has always been the case. But this time something is different. The move away from the political center is no coincidence, but the result of a socialization that is shaped by two things: fear and algorithms.

The fear comes from parents. Young people today are less rebellious than previous generations. Some of them grow up in an environment characterized by overprotective care - a life in safety nets without daring to take the leap into the unknown. Their political convictions often coincide with the path of least resistance - they vote for the party that promises the simplest answer to the most pressing problem. Those who are themselves plagued by uncertainty cling to simple solutions. Left or right - the main thing is that it feels like stability. That was true for climate protection in 2021, and the same will apply to migration in 2025.

At the same time, algorithms rule the internet. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube – this is where elections are decided. 79 percent of young voters get their information from social media. Whoever has an authentic presence there wins. The AfD has understood this, as has the Left. The established parties? They woke up too late and reacted too timidly.

The losers in this development are obvious: the FDP and the Greens. The FDP once promised prosperity and liberalism - and has now left as a toothless tiger. The Greens were once the hope of the climate movement - and then turned out to be pragmatic co-administrators of a traffic light government that failed because of itself.

The shift to the right is also real among young people - but not across the board. Young people have not collectively migrated to the fringes. Rather, there is a polarization that is forming along two major fears: the fear of foreign infiltration and the fear of social inequality.

An overprotected generation is looking for simple answers to complex problems. Those who see migration as a threat vote for the AfD. Those who see the shift to the right as the culprit for their fear of the future vote for the Left. Two sides of the same coin - marked by insecurity, fed by social media and fuelled by parties that deliberately rely on emotions.

A lost generation? No. But an insecure one. The real winner of this election is not the left or the right - but the growing realization that politics neither offers solutions nor creates trust. And the established parties, whose core voters are the elderly? If they don't soon learn to talk to a younger generation instead of just about them, they will lose this group of voters for good too.