There’s a new trend in local politics in Germany, where various states are lowering the voting age to 16. Not surprisingly, the factions pushing for the change are all on the Left, from extreme to center, because foolish young people can be reliably manipulated to vote for more free stuff and increased behavioral license.
A few years ago I would have been appalled by such matters, but since 2020 it has become obvious that elections no longer really matter. The system is rigged to guarantee the continued ascendancy of the current power structure, so throwing a few teeny-bopper votes into the mix seems quite appropriate, under the circumstances. And it saves the ballot harvesters from having to collect so many extra mail-in votes.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Die Welt. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania lowers the minimum age for state elections to 16
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is the sixth federal state to pave the way for lowering the voting age in state elections to 16. The proposal passed Parliament with a large majority, with only two parties voting against it.
In the next state elections planned for 2026 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, young people aged 16 and 17 can also take part for the first time. On Wednesday the state parliament in Schwerin decided by a large majority to lower the voting age. This makes Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the sixth federal state to lower the age limit for state elections from 18 to 16 years of age. In addition to the government factions of the SPD and Die Linke [Left], the Greens and FDP in the opposition also voted in favor, while the AfD and CDU voted against.
Interior Minister Christian Pegel (SPD) spoke of one of the shortest draft laws in this legislative period, as only one number will be changed. “But the social impact is significant. Because the intention is to give 16 and 17-year-olds the strongest democratic basic right that we know: the right to vote, in this case for state elections,” he said.
Several MPs spoke of a long-overdue step. “Finally, today’s younger generation is involved in setting the course for tomorrow,” said Constanze Oehlrich from the Green Party. The new law brings “more participation, more co-determination and more democracy,” said SPD MP Nadine Julitz. FDP parliamentary group leader René Domke also welcomed the change in the law.
Jan-Phillip Tadzen from the AfD parliamentary group, on the other hand, expressed fundamental concerns about it. Although the age for voting will be lowered, you will still only be eligible for election at the age of 18, when you have reached the age of majority. [As if an 18-year-old has any knowledge of politics. I was utterly clueless at that age.]
The CDU MP Marc Reinhardt made a similar statement. In addition, setting the limit at 16 years is arbitrary. Reinhardt also referred to the harmony of rights and duties and asked whether the age of criminal responsibility should not be lowered at the same time. [Spot on! But I assume they wouldn’t like and do that, because all of those culture-enriching “youths” could then be prosecuted instead of mollycoddled for rape and murder.]
After years of discussions, the red-red state government in Schwerin, which had been in power for a year, initiated the change in the law. Voting at 16 in state elections was previously the case in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg. There are plans for this in North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin and Lower Saxony. For local elections in the north-east — as in ten other federal states — the minimum voting age has long been at 16.
Afterword from the translator:
It’s an absolutely transparent maneuver for catching votes. At 16, not fully responsible for crimes, but old and mature enough to express his or her political will, to vote in elections and have a say in the country’s fortunes. Will voting rights come soon at 4, or for illegal migrants? This shot could quite likely backfire on them in three years’ time, after these youth have three hard winters behind them and more restrictions than even their great-grandparents and grandparents had under the Nazis and the Commies. Not that it will matter any longer by then, the way “voting” and (S) “elections” are going. After all, if it’s digital, it can be made easily to fit the current thing, no matter what the electorate votes for. I seriously start to doubt the entire election process now, especially from what I’ve seen happening in the US, Canada, France and Brazil. It has become a major business scheme and scam to keep the people docile slaves, because they believe in this monster lie that their voice is being heard, instead of being used and abused. People should realize before it is far too late that a puppetician’s “honour” lies with the bank balance of the highest bidder and not with the people.
a recruiting drive of more willing sycophants?
When the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in the UK, I was still in school Uniform, I got some funny looks as I walked into my old primary school to vote……
I too was politically naive, still voting my parental beliefs.
However, that the left wants to lower the voting age means that they are very aware that they have only a tenuous hold on the electorate, and that elections are a potent weapon for good or bad. Especially when the much vaunted ‘freebies’ prove to be in short supply ….
All the while one side wants to play ‘fair’ and the other side just want to ‘win’ then voting is just window dressing.
The problem is that conservatives are more concerned with internal catfights than presenting a viable alternative to the liberal, the progressive and the ‘end of the rainbow’ carrot dangling. Only a fool believes that you can fight inflation by printing and spending more money – but then, lifelong propaganda can make fools of us all.
The current slagging off of President Trump by conservative media is classic, to the extent that I believe that the ‘right’ in the USA is totally penetrated by agents of influence, and that the ‘Right’ is so divided that Right election discipline is non-existent and the Republican party unelectable.
Rather than blame election failure on President Trump, conservatives need to look at what they each must do to make the electorate aware of the leftist ambush that is not far down the pathway; perhaps a lesson in the vicissitudes of Stalinism is long overdue. All the while we worry about the red herring that is conservative ‘Fascism’, we are giving the its Stalinist authors a field day.
Yes, you are so right. It does save all the effort of rigging the election, much cheaper too. Just get some idiot celebrity to lead them to the ballot box. Just like the ‘Pied Piper of Hamlyn” led all the children away by playing a pipe. Not much has actually changed has it?