Rebellious youth: what does left and right mean for Gen Z?

This session is part of Battle of Ideas Berlin 2026.

Polls and election results reveal growing political polarisation and fragmentation among Germany’s younger generation. At the 2025 federal election, for example, the Left-Party and the AfD were the strongest parties among first-time voters, receiving 26 and 19 per cent of the vote respectively. Compared with 2021, the Left increased its share of the vote among this group by 18 per cent, while the AfD gained 13 per cent. Young people, as state and European elections also demonstrate, are increasingly turning away from the established mainstream parties favoured by their parents and grandparents and are increasingly drawn to the political offerings of the fringes.

As in other Western countries, growing polarisation along gender lines can be observed: young women lean more towards left parties, while young men are leaning more to the right. In the 2024 Shell Youth Study, for instance, 25 per cent of young males described themselves as somewhat right-wing or right-wing, compared with less than 20 per cent in 2019 – double the numbers compared to young females. At the 2025 federal election, there was a clear split between the youngest women and men – with women voting for the Left-Party (37 per cent) and men for the AfD (25 per cent).

According to a study published by the SINUS Institute in 2026, 59 per cent of young people in Germany perceive their generation as divided. But how can people find common ground again when, on one side, ‘woke’ identity politics, refugee and pro-Palestinian activism are regarded as the most important issues, while the other side dreams of ‘remigration’ and a return to tradition and national identity?

Do radicalism and polarisation among adolescents and young adults resemble those of earlier eras, or are we witnessing a new dimension of social division? And what do the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ even mean at a time when an influential postmodern left appears to have abandoned traditional left-wing principles such as criticism of religion, moral universalism and the representation of working-class interests – or even turned them on their head?