Across Europe, many mainstream leaders owe their election to boomers. But these voters will not be around for ever
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskIn Europe as elsewhere, voters’ preferences were supposed to follow a predictable pattern as they aged. Brimming with idealism and compassion their parents apparently lacked, younger citizens tended to lean left. As they got older, took out a mortgage and discovered the pleasures of income taxation, the right’s appeal became more obvious. But this ideological drift often took place within the same political party.
For the young, in contrast, centrist big tents are merely one option among many. Ties that might have bound their parents to a party—belonging to a church, say, or to a trade union—often no longer apply. Their resulting political adventurism has helped launch new movements across Europe: a slew of Green parties, the odd nationalist one, a few liberal splinter groups.
Why the generational divide? Young and old people think of politics differently. Pensioners are loth to ditch parties that helped secure the peace after a war they might remember, or decades of subsequent economic growth. But all that millennials and those in generation Z, from first-time voters to 30-somethings, have lived through are two economic crises since 2008, with covid-19 curfews to boot. The extreme left doesn’t seem so threatening to those who do not remember the cold war.
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