DDS – Die Deutsche Schule: Issue 1/2/2025, 117. Volume The New Popularity of the Far Right Among Young Voters

Despite mass protests for democracy and against the far right, the “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) continues to celebrate successes and, with 20.8 percent of the vote, has entered the German Bundestag in 2025 stronger than ever before. Notably, since summer 2023 the party is also making strong gains among people under 25. This article first discusses the changes in voting behavior and then looks at the values and political attitudes of young people. It shows that the basic canon of values remains pluralistic, that young people as a whole are not particularly far-right, but that far-right attitudes and democratic disenchantment are on the rise, and that a new generation is emerging within right-wing extremism. The reasons for this are complex: crisis dynamics, processes of normalization of the extreme right, social media, and general societal trends of regression. The article concludes that right-wing extremism cannot be “educated away”, but that educational institutions should be central places for the education of democracy.

Keywords
right-wing extremism, youth, Germany, AfD