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Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Young Europeans losing faith in democracy, poll finds
Only half of young people in France and Spain believe that democracy is the best form of government, with support even lower among their Polish counterparts, a study has found. A majority from Europe's generation Z — 57% — prefer democracy to any other form of government. Rates of support varied significantly, however, reaching just 48% in Poland and only about 51-52% in Spain and France, with Germany highest at 71%. More than one in five — 21% — would favour authoritarian rule under certain, unspecified circumstances. This was highest in Italy at 24% and lowest in Germany with 15%. In France, Spain and Poland the figure was 23%. Nearly one in 10 across the nations said they did not care whether their government was democratic or not, while another 14% did not know or did not answer. Thorsten Faas, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University, who worked on the study, said: 'Among people who see themselves as politically to the right of centre and feel economically disadvantaged, their support of democracy sinks to just one in three. 'Democracy is under pressure, from within and without.' The study was carried out in April and May. More than 6,700 people between the ages of 16 and 26 in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Poland responded to the ninth annual survey by the YouGov institute for the Tui Foundation, which funds projects dedicated to youth in Europe. Forty-eight per cent worry that the democratic system in their own country is endangered, including 61% in Germany, where the economy — Europe's biggest — is ailing and the far right has made significant inroads, fuelled in part by increased backing from young voters. The return of Donald Trump to the White House, the rise of China, and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine have shifted power away from Europe in the respondents' perception, with just 42% counting the EU among the top three global players. Despite — or perhaps because of — Brexit, the figure was highest among Britons at 50%. Of those surveyed in the UK, 73% wanted a return to the EU, while nearly half of young Europeans (47%) sought stronger ties between the EU and Britain. The US was seen by 83% as part of the power trio, followed by China with 75% and Russia on 57%. Rising polarisation is also driving young Europeans to the ideological fringes along with their elders, but a notable gender divide has emerged in the process. Nearly one in five — 19% — described themselves as politically right of centre, up from 14% in 2021, while 33% called themselves centrists, 32% as leftist and 16% without any designation. Women in Germany, France and Italy identified as progressive in higher numbers than four years ago, while young men in Poland and Greece have grown more conservative in the same period. Support for tougher restrictions on migration has grown across the board since 2021, to 38% from 26%. Most young Europeans expressed hope in the EU's potential, and two in three overwhelmingly supported their country remaining in the bloc if it still was. But 39% described the EU as not particularly democratic and just 6% said their own national governments worked well, with little need for significant changes. More than half — 53% — felt the EU was too focused on details and trivial matters. They would like the bloc to tackle the high cost of living, bolster defence against external threats and create better conditions for companies to improve the economy. Elke Hlawatschek, the head of the Tui Foundation, said: 'The European project, which has brought us peace, freedom of movement and economic progress for decades, is seen as unwieldy.' Greek people see the strongest need for fundamental overhaul of their political system and are most sceptical about the EU, which Faas described as rooted in enduring trauma of the eurozone debt crisis that drove their country's economy to the brink. Despite stronger support for climate protection among young Europeans, just one in three said it should take priority over economic growth. The figure has slipped from 44% in 2021.
Local Germany
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Germany
Inside Germany: Biergarten rules, open-air pools and mixed messages on migration
Inside Germany is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in Germany that you might've missed. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Is this still the Germany that needs immigration? Germany is getting a new government next week, and though a fresh start always tends to feel like a positive thing, foreigners in the country would be forgiven for feeling a little disheartened. The AfD, who were handed an official "right-wing extremist" label by the German intelligence agency on Friday, are currently polling at around 26 percent, having come second in the federal elections. Meanwhile, Friedrich Merz - who campaigned on a hard-right, anti-migration platform - is being sworn in as Chancellor on Tuesday. This week, both Merz and his chief of staff Thorsten Frei both declared that the government would initiate its crackdown on migration "from day one" , echoing US President Donald Trump's election pledge to "seal the border on day one". Incoming Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has previously expressed admiration for Trump : back in January, he praised the President's habit of governing by decree and said Germany needs to do the same when it comes to immigration. Scanning recent headlines, it's hard not to see other small echoes of the US President's stance on immigration - including the targeting of student activists from abroad. In April, four international students - three of them EU citizens - were facing deportation for taking part in a pro-Palestinian protest at Berlin's Free University. The incoming government also says it wants to explore stripping dual nationality from people it deems to be "extremist" or "antisemitic", which experts fear is the thin edge of a far more authoritarian wedge. Amid all this tough talk and Trumpian echoes, the coalition pact gushes warmly about the role that skilled workers will play in shoring up the German economy. In a desperate push to get these workers into the country, the parties want to create a new 'Work and Stay' agency and speed up the process of recognising qualifications. Advertisement As columnist Brian Melican points out in his recent op-ed , however, Germany isn't looking particularly welcoming right now. "As a result of the poor economy and the increasingly xenophobic vibes we're giving off, immigration to Germany – both illicit and wholly legal – is already falling," he writes. Though it may come as a surprise to the incoming government, vibes do matter when people decide whether to move to a country. And while the CDU and CSU may dream of a world where only those migrants with a PhD in Astrophysics move in, to get the best and brightest, they may have to speak with less distain whenever they use the word "migration". Picture of the week Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Reichwein This joyful picture, snapped by DPA's Christoph Reichwein, shows a boy springing off a three-metre high diving board into the pool at the Grugabad in Essen. As temperatures soared across the country, the start of May saw several open-air swimming pools around the country finally reopen their doors for the season. The Freibäder are now set to stay open for a number of months, providing a brief cool refuge on the most sweltering days of summer, before closing again sometime in September - or even October. Advertisement How to impress the locals in a German Biergarten April 23rd was National Beer Day in Germany, marking the unofficial opening of the beer garden season. During the light, balmy evenings, one of the great pleasures of life is sitting in a leafy Biergarten with friends, with a cool beer or a glass of wine in hand. As writer Tom Pugh explains in his recent article , however, the German beer garden comes with its own special set of rules and customs. So before you can truly let you hair down, though, it's good to get familiar with some etiquette and vocab. As a warm-up act, you'll need to start with a 'Muntermacher' - a refreshing drink that roughly translates as 'the energiser'. What you pick is mostly up to you, but beware: it will need to set you up for an afternoon of drinking. While spending time in the Biergarten , you will also need to navigate the culturally sensitive terrain of picking a Helles over a Pils (or vice versa), and be sure not to neglect the important roles of both the Pfandmünzen and the Bierdeckel. Even the act of leaving the beer garden can come with its own set of tough decisions. Was the last beer you had truly an Absacker (night cap), or do you still have room for 'one for the road', which in German is known as a Wegebier ?
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Yahoo
Berlin police clear occupied lecture hall, launch investigations
German police have launched around 100 criminal investigations following the occupation of a lecture hall at Berlin's Humboldt University. The suspected offences include aggravated trespassing, incitement of the people, serious breach of the peace, resistance against law enforcement, and the use of symbols linked to unconstitutional or terrorist organizations, a police statement said on Thursday. According to police, some activists allegedly poured an unknown liquid, possibly urine, on officers and threw pyrotechnics at the Wednesday protest. The reason for the occupation was the threatened deportation of four foreign students - three from EU countries and one from the US - following pro-Palestinian protests at the Free University, a different university in Berlin. The four are accused of threatening university employees with axes and clubs during protests in October. During the hours-long eviction operation at Humboldt University on Wednesday evening, two individuals attacked emergency services and resisted arrest. Two officers sustained hand injuries but remained on duty, police said. At the request of the university leadership, police cleared the occupied hall by deploying roughly 350 officers. Protesters had barricaded the lecture hall doors from the inside. Officers gradually led the occupants into the courtyard, checked their identities, and ordered them to leave the premises. Police reported that 89 people had been inside the hall and about 120 had gathered on the street.
Washington Post
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Europe races to lure U.S. scientists as Trump puts pressure on universities
Europe is investing millions in a flurry of newly announced academic programs, in an energetic effort to lure top American scientists across the Atlantic at the same time as President Donald Trump casts many U.S. research efforts into turmoil with funding cuts and executive edicts. Spurred by 'alarming political interference in academic research by the Trump administration,' Brussels's Vrije Universiteit (VUB), or Free University, allocated $2.7 million in funding last week for at least 12 new postdoctoral roles open to 'censored Americans.' The same month, France's Aix-Marseille University opened applications for about 15 places in a new Safe Place for Science program, hoping to welcome American scientists with the promise of academic freedom. AMU said it plans to raise up to $16 million in funding and has already received a 'high number' of applicants for the three-year program.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Far-right populists much more likely than the left to spread fake news
Far-right populists are significantly more likely to spread fake news on social media than politicians from mainstream or far-left parties, according to a study which argues that amplifying misinformation is now part and parcel of radical right strategy. 'Radical right populists are using misinformation as a tool to destabilise democracies and gain political advantage,' said Petter Törnberg of the University of Amsterdam, a co-author of the study with Juliana Chueri of the Dutch capital's Free University. 'The findings underscore the urgent need for policymakers, researchers, and the public to understand and address the intertwined dynamics of misinformation and radical right populism,' Törnberg added. The research draws on every tweet posted between 2017 and 2022 by every member of parliament with a Twitter (now X) account in 26 countries: 17 EU members including Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, but also the UK, US and Australia. It then compared that dataset – 32m tweets from 8,198 MPs – with international political science databases containing detailed information on the parties involved, such as their position on the left-right spectrum and their degree of populism. Finally, the researchers scraped factchecking and fake news-tracking services to build a dataset of 646,058 URLs, each with an associated 'factuality rating' based on the reliability of its source – and compared that data with the 18m URLs shared by the MPs. By crunching all the different datasets together, the researchers were able to create what they described as an aggregate 'factuality score' for each politician and each party, based on the links that MPs had shared on Twitter. The data showed conclusively that far-right populism was 'the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread of misinformation', they concluded, with MPs from centre-right, centre-left and far-left populist parties 'not linked' to the practice. Far-right populist parties such as Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the National Rally (RN) in France and the Dutch Freedom party (PVV) have made major gains across Europe in recent years and are in government in several countries. The researchers noted that they would not be able to expand their dataset of MPs' posts on X because the platform – now owned by the US billionaire Elon Musk, who has made no secret of his support for far-right parties – no longer offers data access. Recent research suggests most people do not consume or share misinformation – defined as the unintentional and the deliberate sharing of false information – which instead was heavily concentrated in particular electoral groups, the study said. The research suggested that rather than the anti-elitism of populists generally, it was 'the exclusionary ideologies and hostility towards democratic institutions of radical right populism' that lay behind most misinformation campaigns, Törnberg said. Misinformation was less useful to far-left populists, who focus more on economic grievances, but far-right populists' emphasis on cultural grievances and opposition to democratic norms was 'fertile ground' for misinformation, the authors said. The study also highlighted the 'symbiotic relationship' between far-right populists and 'alternative' media. 'Radical-right populists have been effective in creating and utilising alternative media ecosystems that amplify their viewpoints,' Törnberg said. Those ecosystems were amplifying misinformation and shaping far-right populist movements, he said, strengthening their ideological messages, creating a sense of community among voters, and providing a counter-narrative to mainstream media.
