Happy Nice Mall

BERLIN – Emilia Fester is 23 years old and hasn’t finished college yet. Max Lucks is 24 years old and describes himself as a militant cyclist. Ria Schröder is 29 years old and has a rainbow flag on her Twitter profile. Muhanad Al-Halak came to Germany from Iraq when he was 31 and 11 years old.

And now it’s all in the German Parliament.

NS germany election result It was an enigma in many ways. The winners, the Social Democrats led by Olaf Scholz, barely won. No party received more than 25.7 percent. Voters evenly distributed their votes to left- and right-wing candidates.

But one thing is clear: the Germans have elected their youngest ever Parliament, and the two parties at the center of this generational change, the Greens and the Free Democrats, are poised to not only shape the next government but also help shape the future. country.

Greens for now focused on climate change and Free Democrats, kingmakers, who campaign on social justice and civil liberties and digital modernization: Whoever becomes the next chancellor almost certainly needs a government on both sides.

“We will no longer leave politics to the old generation,” said Ms. Schröder, a new MP for the Free Democrats from Hamburg. “The world around us has changed. We want to take our country into the future – because it’s our future.”

For decades Germany has been ruled by two rival founding parties, each led by older men and, more recently, a slightly older woman. Indeed, when Chancellor Angela Merkel took office in 2005 at the age of 51, she was the youngest chancellor ever. Germany’s voters are still aging, one in four voters is over 60, but a younger voter, some angry, raising two new parties.

A full 44 percent of voters under the age of 25 voted for Greens and Free Democrats, compared to just 25 percent in this age range who voted for Ms. Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats and the traditional centre-left party Social Democrats.

The most immediate impact will be felt in Parliament. About one in seven MPs in the departing Parliament was under the age of 40. Now the rate is close to one-third. (In the US Congress, one in every five members is 40 or younger. The average age of Germany’s new Parliament is 47.5 years, while the average age in Congress is 58.)

“There’s a generation gap, a very sharp polarization that didn’t exist before: under 30 and over 50,” says sociologist Klaus Hurrelmann, who studies youth at Berlin’s Hertie School. “Young people want change and these two parties got the change vote.”

The Greens took third place, while the Free Democrats finished fourth, and both saw their vote share rise. The split-screen quality of the race was evident: the two traditional parties’ candidates campaigned for the status quo, while the Free Democrats and Greens shamelessly campaigned for change.

“It shouldn’t stay as it is,” said a Free Democrats campaign poster.

The two parties are already signaling their intention to change the old ways of doing business in German politics. Their leaders reached out to each other – an unprecedented step – before meeting with representatives of the larger parties ahead of coalition talks, a process that began over the weekend.

Instead of leaking their meeting to a newspaper or public broadcaster, they posted a selfie of their four leaders on their website. Instagramis causing a sensation in a country where political debate is more focused on blocking social media than using it to reach new audiences.

Many of the young MPs now moving to Berlin, like Mr. Lucks, say they will cycle to work or – in the case of Ms. Fester – skateboard to work. Some want to rent public housing. Others schedule cross-party “beer pong” meetings to get to know each other. And all of them are in regular contact with their voters via social media.

“What are your hopes and fears for a traffic light?” Mr. Lucks asked his followers on Instagram this week, referring to the party colors of green, yellow and red, the most likely coalition of Greens and Free Democrats with the Social Democrats at the helm.

Mr Lucks, who was selected for the Greens, received 200 comments within a few hours. “It’s really important to me to keep that direct line to my constituents,” he said. “Young people want to be heard. They felt betrayed by politics – their problems were not taken seriously by those in power.”

According to the polls, the two issues that most stimulated young voters in the election were climate change and freedom.

“There is no more important issue than climate change – existential,” said Roberta Müller, a 20-year-old first-time voter in Berlin’s Steglitz district. “It doesn’t seem very democratic to me for the elderly to decide and effectively destroy our future.”

The handling of the epidemic also played a big role. As schools closed and college classrooms moved online, billions of euros in aid poured into the economy to keep businesses afloat and prevent widespread layoffs.

“During the pandemic, hairdressers were more important than education,” said Ms. Fester, a 23-year-old Greens member, the youngest of the new Parliament’s 735 members. “There has been long discussion about how hairdressers can stay open, but universities and kindergartens remain closed.”

The pandemic has also brought to light how this is done, while also drawing attention to key workers, who are often underpaid and younger. Far behind Europe’s largest economy to develop the digital infrastructure needed to compete in the modern, globalized world.

A younger group of legislators also helped increase other species diversity, which was previously mostly a homogeneous chamber. There will be more women and MPs from ethnic minorities than ever before – and Germany’s first two transgender Members of Parliament.

Mr. Al-Halak, a 31-year-old Free Democrat, can be considered one of the “former” new members of Parliament.

Born in Iraq, he was 11 years old when he immigrated with his family to Germany, settling in the southern part of Lower Bavaria, where he will now represent in Parliament. He wants to serve as the voice of the next generation of Germans who were born elsewhere but successfully learned the language and trade – worked at a wastewater plant – to become active members of society.

“I wanted to be an example to other youth that you can advance as a working man, no matter where you come from, what you look like or what religion you belong to,” Al-Halak said.

Despite having a woman as chancellor for 16 years, the proportion of women represented in Parliament has increased only slightly from 31 percent in the previous legislature.

“I know there are some people who are happy that we have 34 percent of women represented in parliament, but I don’t think it’s something to celebrate,” said Fester, who included feminism in one of her campaign topics. “The dominance of old white men is still very evident, not only in politics, but also in other areas where decisions are made and money flows.”

Germany’s smaller parties have traditionally defined themselves in terms of issues, rather than adopting broadly defined ideological stances. They also agree on a few things; Both sides want to legalize marijuana and lower the voting age to 16.

“There are now other coordinates in the system, progressive and conservative, collectivist and individualist, that define differences much better than left and right,” Ms. Schröder said.

Still, the two smaller parties don’t get along very well. The Greens want to raise taxes on the rich, while the Free Democrats oppose the tax hike. The Greens believe the government is essential to address climate change and social issues, while the Free Democrats trust the industry.

“The big question is: Will they paralyze each other or will they succeed in building the innovation and innovation they represent in the next government?” said the sociologist Mr. Hurrelmann. “The balancing act will be: You get the climate, we get the freedom.”

This week, newly arrived first-class MPs traveled to the Parliament building, the Reichstag, to learn how to find their way, as well as the rules and procedures.

“The first days were very exciting,” said Ms. Fester. “It was a bit like orientation week in college. You get your travel card and you have to find your way – only in the Reichstag.”

Mr. Lucks said he still had to remind himself that these were real.

“It’s a great feeling,” he said, “but it’s also a kind of humility: We have a great responsibility. Our generation has campaigned for us, voted for us, and they expect us to make it happen. We can’t fail them.”

Christopher F. Schuetze contributing reporting.