What Is Happening to the Youth Vote? Berlin Goes Left, Former East Germany Goes Far-Right

In the Berlin state election in Germany, The Left party became the largest party for the first time in history. Notably, 46 percent of voters aged 16 to 24 chose The Left. The party put forward policies targeting skyrocketing housing costs, such as the public takeover of housing owned by large corporate landlords and caps on public housing rents. A similar trend is emerging in the United States. Democratic Socialist candidates, including Zohran Mamdani in New York, are winning the support of young voters, and a survey showed that only 9 percent of Americans under 30 hold a very positive view of capitalism. Favorable views toward socialism are also rising.

However, it is difficult to simply view this as a "progressive shift among the youth." In other parts of Germany, young voters are choosing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), and in the U.S. as well, the youth vote swings significantly from election to election. Furthermore, a gender ideological gap, where men lean conservative and women lean progressive, is appearing in multiple countries. In this week's O-Graph, we examined through five graphs how housing costs and living instability are shaking up the youth political landscape.
(Reported by An Hyemin | Filmed by Hwang Se-hoe and Kim Sang-yoon | Edited by Lee Ki-eun | Designed by Ahn Jun-seok and Shin Yeon-sung (Intern) | Produced by Intellectual Content IP Team)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.