Why are Gen Z Europeans Voting for the Far Right? 

Hello - this video has proved more controversial than usual, apparently because a significant number of viewers think we're (perhaps deliberately) overlooking immigration as reason that young European are voting for the so-called "far right". This is in some sense fair - after all, polling suggests immigration is the main reason Europeans are voting for the "far right" (x.com/SteveAkehurst/status/1799935834168377532 ) - but we were specifically trying to explain why YOUNG Europeans were voting for the far right MORE than their older counterparts, not why the far right was on the rise generally. On this count, Eurobarometer polling (europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/3152) suggests that young Europeans are actually less likely than older Europeans to cite immigration as a policy priority for the European Parliament elections, hence why we didn't consider it a sufficient explanation. P.S. we nonetheless made a number of errors in this video, including: - misnaming Germany's Social Democrats as the Socialists - typo suggesting 11 year old Finns could vote - presenting Flanders-specific polling as Belgium-wide polling. For these errors, we can only apologise: we know that this is a recurring problem and we should be doing better. Nonetheless, thanks for watching - Zac

Something you didn’t talk about is immigration, which at least in Belgium is nearly the only reason people vote for the far right.

Young people are feeling the aggression of the migrants more than older people.

People are tired of the wealth transfer from young and poor to old and rich,

It's cute that they label those who love their country more, either center-right or far right

I feel like the world is having a right-wing shift in many nations.

simple the left failed the gen z

It’s simple. We want our countries to still exist in 50 years and not become Muslim caliphates.

world is healing

2 Things: 1. Immigration 2. Old people draining the system

You must be pretty astronomically out of touch with EU politics if you can make a 9 minute video with this title, without even once mentioning immigration.

Leaving out immigration is you not doing a very good job on this one. It’s a huge factor.

Immigration is a main issue. In the Netherlands young people are unable to find houses. Boomers are sitting on tons of wealth and immigration laws make it so we have to give immigrants housing as well. Dutch youth is feeling forgotten.

TLDR: it's because anti establishmentism and social media Comment section: it's immigration

Young people are far more concerned about what the country will be like in 2 decades.

TLDR: "We swear, we're not biased." Also TLDR: Never addresses that immigration is an existential problem for Europe.

And not even mentioning immigration is wild

9 min vid yet still not getting that it's immigration

Even in the US, young Guys are massively shifting right. While almost everywhere Single women are even more left.

For the love of God, how can you ignore the elephant in the room : immigration !

We have no money - We have no stable jobs - We will never own a house - We will never be able to retire.

This is what happens when you give young people very little to look forward to in building their future, history always repeats it's self.

Ignoring the elephant in the room, immigration, can only be due to political correctness, 'wokeness' and a fear of being called racist - the very things that got us into this mess in the first place.

Because young people are in the positions to complete with immigrants. If you are old, home-owning pensioner, on the other hand, it's natural for you to be pro-immigration since you are benefited from cheap labors. There is neither good nor evil in this world. Only the conflicts between different people in different positions.

Number 1 issue - Immigration legal and illegal.

I think it’s more about young people being disappointed with the political establishment. In my country, Sweden, we have a big youth unemployment problem, and a housing market which is absurdly bad. Meanwhile the parties in the centre espoused a very relaxed migration policy and very generous programmes for migrants whilst the actual citizens had problems getting started with adult life. Since young people feel that the established parties have failed them, they go to the opposition. For women it’s mostly the far left party, and for men, the far right party. What tells me that it’s more about young people being fed up with the establishment is that in the UK, if young people were the only ones to vote, the tories would not even get a single seat, while almost all of England would be labour, wales would be fairly green (as in Plaid Cymru) and Scotland would be very SNP.

Immigration aka Islamization.

Making a video like this and not talk about immigration/islam is utterly politically tonedeaf.

it's heavily about immigration.

Guess wanting to preserve borders is "far-right" now🤣

That's not far right, that's just right.

I know it's a crazy idea, but how about actually addressing mass immigration instead of sweeping it under the rug? Just a thought, I know, crazy.

You made a mistake, the poll about belgium is actually only about flanders, and the parties mentionned are the flemish parties, so it doesn't represent belgium as a whole An understandable mistake given Belgium's complicated political system

young people are being ignored and this is what happens, so sad

The whole world is about to have a massive rightward swing

For Germany, the reason is quite clear. The young generation is feeling the effects of immigration particularly strongly. In many schools, German students are increasingly exposed to a greater influence of Islamic-conservative values from their Muslim classmates. Foreign nationalism by Arabs, Turks, Albanians, Serbians, Palestinians is also playing a role. There is a trend for being anti-german and anti-west for many young people with an immigrant background. There is also more and more violence, such as all the knife attacks, and less and less scope and opportunities to discuss the issue. Criticism of this violence is always equated with racism. The state is also incapable of acting. If you are the victim of a serious act of violence today, the likelihood of the perpetrator being convicted is very low. Other issues are the developments surrounding the war in Ukraine, economic prospects and a left-wing bubble that is more concerned with woke issues than honest social justice. Some of these issues are not so present among older people.

3:38, I assume 11 year old Finnish men aren't allowed to vote?

3:00 You made a small mistake here. In Germany there is no party called the "socialist party" what you meant was the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

I was on a bus in a ski resort in USA about 2-3 years ago and a young woman from sweden was talking to someone and I overheard what she said. She literally left due to islamic immigrants ruining her home country. Her words, not mine!

Another day, another TLDR about how Europe is going Far Right.

young people are sick of the media lies

The comments will be fun

The "radical right" used to be a normal opinion a 20 years ago

You pretty much ignored us in central Europe (although you also ignored southern Europe and eastern Europe...), but even here in Czechia most of my classmates in college, who don´t follow politics that much and didn´t know who to vote, asked me who is the most against immigration, everything else was less important. When gen Z even in our country prioritize immigration over everything else when we don´t even have that many immigrants (mostly Ukrainians, but those aren´t those we mean...) it really shows something.

Reasons you didn't mention 1) Immigration 2) European right is more socialist in economics 3) The age divide. The establishment right is boomer/X. The far right is has more youth energy. And the elderly are putting forward policies that take away from young people to give to themselves.

I was born in 1996. I can tell you one thing. When you have a middle-class childhood, being told that you can have a good life if you work hard, and that you live in a free and prosperous time and place, that becomes a core part of who you are. When you then get 9/11, forever wars, the housing market collapse, the olbiteration of community, mass polarization, refugee crises, stagnant wages, ballooning debt, mass inflation, terrorist attacks, a climate crisis nobody seems interested in solving, and you end up perpetually renting a single room apartment watching your dollar mean less and less every single year, it's not a question of if you'll become radicalized, it's a matter of by whom. Desperate people are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

Why is it you always hear about the "far right" but never the "far left"

Immigration, also immigration and sometimes its because of immigration.

I think you guys should talk about the cop being stabbed to death in Germany. The timing of it with these elections I think is going to have a major impact, especially since it happened at a political rally.

Here in Portugal my biggest annoyance is that most parties seem to see and discuss the European election is it was a second round of the national elections

I love how it's always far right, but never far left.

The media ⬇ Young people vote for far left: no problem Young people vote for far right: big problem

Basically survival instinct.

Enough calling them far right . How about center right or just right

People talk about economic and sociological factors, but what about psychological ones? How do young adults go through their period of identity formation in times like this? There seems to be a divide between those that want to abandon national identities alltogether and those that double down on them.

Immigration has gone out of control. In almost all EU countries more than half of the people say that their country takes in too many asylum seekers. Mainly in Italy and Greece but the numbers are still very high in places like NL, Germany, Finland etc.

To be honest, these graphs are poorly made. Why don't you show the percentage of the represented age bracket in each respective graph? As they are now, the charts are not readable at all.

Because of huge demographic change that nobody has consented to.

The short anser. Islam.

Immigration

It’s not “far right” it’s just right!

What you missed was Central, Eastern and most of Southern Europe, i.e. most of Europe...

You can just ask Gen Z and they will tell you their reasons

Islam. That's why I'm voting for them. Don't want it.

You know this channel has a tape over its mouth when it doesn't once mention immigration as an issue in a 9 minute video about such a topic.

For me (young belgium guy) immigration is pretty much the key factor, I used to be pretty indiferend toward it and politic as a whole but that terorist attack we had in october during a football match really made me realise we need a stricter migration policy to prevent monsters like that from getting in It's a pretty radical change for me, if anything I used to be more leftleaning because I'm concerned about climate change

Are there any just right parties? You keep talkung about far and radical right but I never hear about regular right parties.

The problem is immigration. Illegal immigration specifically. Because the problem is so mismanaged many immigrants who were rejected from asylum for understandable reasons like if they are violent or have a criminal history aren’t actually deported, leaving dangerous people undocumented and desperate for money, leaving them in a situation that puts other Europeans (especially women or young people) in danger. On the flip side the large amount of mismanagement means that there isn’t anything being done to protect migrant rights either, many are trapped in Greek labour camps or are victims to ilegal practices like in Hungary where they transport them in containers without food or water for up to 24 hours, with many child immigrants ending up in human trafficking in other scenarios. Both immigrants and native residents are victims to this problem due to the lack of mismanagement at our borders because of the VETO powers of our leaders and the blatant disregard for the rule of law due to legal loopholes. Shutting down our borders won’t solve the problem but create new problems and lead to further isolation. The real solution is to figure out how to manage the border in a sane way and to decide who can get in and whoever is dangerous stays out. We can only do this if all of us work together because we are all stronger together!

Sick of flooding of immigration. Glory

Speaking for myself as a leftist voter in the Netherlands; I am disillusioned by leftist parties whitewashing and greenwashing their rhetoric, holding fast to idealism and ignoring realities on the ground that are harder to sell, even leaning into particular myths during campaigning. For example, I have a lot of sympathy towards farmers in the Netherlands, but I didn't see the left do enough to help farmers. Besides every right-wing voter is a disappointed left-wing voter, I reckon. Which isn't to say that it's a protest vote, but rather, since left-wing voters feel betrayed by institutions, they end up feeling like they should be free from those institutions, which drives them towards the right. It's kind of like the bus system. If you hate taking the bus, you are not likely to vote to raise money for the bus, but if nobody raises money for making the bus system nicer and more convenient, then you're never going to like taking the bus. In biology, this is called "niche creation". EDIT: Furthermore; whenever a generation is in crisis, men tend to feel pressured to become breadwinners at the cost of not having a healthy social or family life. It's shown that this makes men more anxious to prove that, since they have given up on receiving love and validation, that they need to balance out the 'pampering' of their counterparts by speaking 'harsh truths', which tends to be the language of reactionaries (reactionaries are people who co-opt originally left-wing concerns and provide right-wing answers, which is why they're a 'reaction'). The left-wing does not really have a wing of folks incorporating right-wing talking points viewed from a left-wing lens. Anyone who tries is often dropped by the left and absorbed by the right.

The reason is immigration. That's it. It's amazing how the host doesn't cite the most obvious factor behind the popularity of parties whose primary platform is immigration restrictionism. It's not even that young Europeans are more immigration restrictionist than old Europeans, that's not the case if you look at the polls, it's just that young people are less risk-averse than old people, so young Europeans are willing to take the risk of trying something different than traditional parties supported by traditional media. Of course, young Europeans are also increasingly having the experience of having to deal with violent and anti-social third world immigrants in schools, something that was much rarer for Europeans over the age of 40 when the immigrant population was much smaller. All the other factors mentioned by the host are either minor or wrong. Europe doesn't really have much of a cultural war like the US, for the simple reason that Europe doesn't have a big right-wing religious movement like the US, these young Europeans voting for so-called far-right parties are not more religious or conservative than old Europeans, that's clear in polls, which show them supporting things like gay marriage in vast majorities, so the issue in question is really just immigration. The other thing is that because Europe has multiple parties, Europeans do not suffer from partisan brain poisoning like the US, and there are studies showing that Europeans who vote for immigration restrictionist parties do so because of the policy of immigration restrictionism, not their rhetoric. A simple way to check all this is to just look at Denmark. In Denmark, the traditional center-left and center-right parties are doing well, and the so-called far-right parties have a real but not extraordinary presence among young people. Why? Because in Denmark, the traditional center-left and center-right parties have restricted third world immigration, and continue to do so. It's simple really, if traditional centrist parties have sensible immigration policies that preserve their countries and don't import gigantic numbers of inassimilable aliens, then they will do well. Why are Anglo countries different? That's an interesting question, my guess is that it's a mix of the fact that Anglo countries have better immigrants, which is definitely true for the US, Canada and Australia, but also just a more successful ideological campaign about the supposed virtues of multiculturalism.

Basically, we vote for the fringe parties because the status quo isn't working for younger people (below 40)

extinction is a reason to get angry

You cited a study that was recently challenged, for the voting of young people in Germany. While the study is correct, the media made errors interpreting it, a challening study suggests more like 17% for the AfD. The study you cited did not include persons that said: "I am not sure what to vote" (which was if I remember correctly the most given answer) therefore they lack in accuracy.

i'm 21 years old and voted for Wilders, twice now.

Immigration is the core reason for what i can see why this has been happening so much last couple years , issue with that is a lot of other people around my age range just ignore everything else a party plans or represents as long as they shout they'll keep non-EU immigrants out of Europe for good. More strict immigration laws against non-EU members is a good move, especially regarding ones fully outside of Europe that get weaponized by our enemies such as Russia to flood borders but i am not gonna blindly jump into a political party just cause they are one of the few or only to plan more and better restrictions against non-EU immigrants. Voting for a party for just one singular reasons and pretending to be deaf to their other plans is a very stupid and dangerous game. Just cause you hear a political group jingle a singular thing you like, don't just flock to them asap, look into what that party actually plans to do regarding everything else too.

well young people in europe are inheriting a civilization which isn't remotely close to what there fathers and forefathers had the privilege of living through.

Finding a job and a house is hard enough. Now imagine being told that 50% of your salary is effectively going to be taken away to pay for old people, sick people, immigrants and the environment.

I think it's interesting because whilst we have majoritarian system in the UK, the likes of Reform UK are building in popularity. Polling somewhere between 15% and 20%, I wonder what British politics would look like if there was a more proportional view and looked to be more representative

I agree, I prefer BBQ wings.

I'm convinced it's because (continental) Europeans have a much stronger sense of cultural identity, which is currently under threat from immigration and excessive globalism. The reason men are more conservative is because they tend to vote less from a position of emotion or empathy, which is a reason women vote more liberal. And then there is the constant attack on masculinity and the disdain towards the role of men in society. It's not acceptable and will garner a backlash. We're seeing it now. Whatever platforms or media are used to get information from is far less relevant than the above points.

3:36 men should be 18-44 not 11-44

The single largest difference between Australian voters and the rest of the world is that in Australia, voting is compulsory. This results in a 95% voter turn out in every election, and pushes Australian politics towards the centre. There is very little difference between the left and the right here.

It’S A pRotESt VOte! Love the cope 😂

I am gen z and became right wing because of the 2015-2016 terrorist attacks. I was not political before

You didn't mention the most important reason young Europeans vote right wing parties. They love their cultures, their civilizations and their ancestors and they don't want all of them be destroyed by excessive immigration, war on culture, religion and common sense. Also they are very patriotic. Me personally i am more liberal and sometimes left leaning. But i will never vote for a party which hates my fatherland, my ancestors and my flag. Instead as an 18 year old Greek man, I will vote for a right wing party.

Not being European, I admire western civilization and admire those who are rising up to sustain and protect it, and I will do as well.

Trust me, if mainstream parties seriously tackle the immigration issue and people trust them, nearly all of these votes will go back to them. Now however, I don't know if they can regain that trust after all these years...

This channel is the definition of 'No Balls'

Because the younger generations are increasingly paying the price for the political misbehaviour of the past few decades. Less housing, less social cohesion, more wokeism, less stability, more polarisation, more (partly) incompatible immigrants around them, less economic prosperity than their parents, et cetera.

I generally agree with the points in the video. However, the first half is spent entirely for showing the shift towards the far-right, meaning there's little time for an actual explanation - which was important enough for the title. I'd say you either make the video longer, so you can go more into depth on some of these reasons, or you spend less time establishing the basis (if you want to keep it short)

Aren´t you comparing apples to oranges when equating anglo-saxon ¨Left" to european left? To me the Labour is currently more rightwing than Pieter Omzigt's NSC.

4:06 why did you have to pick sunak in the rain 😂

I live in Romania, we don’t even have a left party, all of them are either center-right, right or far right, no illegal immigrants, we have plenty legal, but not even one illegal, one of the safest countries in europe and the world.

Because we are not stupid.

Save Europe ⚡⚡

"far-right" according to whom? People that are openly tolerant of openly socialist and communist parties.....whom are never called "far-left"?

The political gender gap is also a matter of cultural hegemony. In East Germany, where the right has a clear cultural hegemony - in particular amongst young people, the gap is almost neglible (in sharp contrast to Germany as a whole). Men, especially young men, are generally more critical of the status quo and tend to express contrarian views more openly, whereas women seem to have a more conformist inclination, but once the mainstream thus the dominating cultural norm has already shifted and stabilized sufficiently, they will consolidate the new status quo deep into the societal micro-level (family, relationships, circle of friends, everyday interactions) - not seldom in a surprisingly thorough and diligent manner. "Wenn wir international schauen, sehen wir in den Ländern, wo rechtspopulistische oder rechtsradikale Parteien eine gewisse gesellschaftliche Normalisierung erreicht haben, wird der Gender Gap geringer. In Italien, den Niederlanden oder Frankreich wählen fast genauso viele oder gleich viele Frauen die rechten Parteien wie Männer. Innerhalb von Deutschland sehen wir diese gesellschaftliche Normalisierung am stärksten in Sachsen und Thüringen. Die Stimmanteile sind in den Bundesländern besonders hoch und die Ablehnung gegen die Partei [AfD] geht eher zurück in der Gesellschaft. Sprich, es könnte sein, dass der Gender Gap jetzt in Sachsen und Thüringen bei der AfD geringer ist als bundesweit." - Dr. Ansgar Hudde, Institut für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie Universität Köln

I am young, but I am not dumb. I Will never vote left

Woman are more left leaning and men are more right leaning.