Helmut Kohl. October 1978.Wikicommons/German Federal Archive. Some rights reserved.In recent weeks there have been crucial elections in three large European countries, France (presidential and parliamentary), Britain, and Italy (municipal elections). Overall, about 105 million voters have been called to the polls. While results have been quite surprising, and relatively new figures (Jeremy Corbyn and Emmanuel Macron) have gained international prominence, European democracy has not really demonstrated its strengths.
The most encouraging aspect has been the rise in the youth vote, which in Britain has mainly been won by Corbyn’s Labour. British youngsters are somewhat better off than their peers on the continent: youth unemployment would be around 11%, much less than in most EU countries (22% in France; 35% in Italy; 39% in Spain). And yet they have expressed dissatisfaction by voting en masse for Corbyn and rejecting the perspectives of austerity, debt, and uncertainty.
At the same time their choice has been a demand for better politics, and for a return of values, vision, and ideas; they have had enough of self-serving Oxford-educated cliques, and élite infighting. They have had enough of the few, of all the browbeating issued by the oligarchy in the run-up to the Brexit referendum as well as in its aftermath. An anti-élite attitude has emerged also among the French youth. At least in the first round of the presidential polls (22 April), those under 24 preferred more ‘extremist’ Le Pen and Melenchon to the ‘moderate’ and ‘centrist’, Emmanuel Macron. Macron largely won the second round and the legislative polls; yet the overall turnout in the latter two rounds was as low as 49 and 43%. So the fact that ‘Republique en Marche!’ brought many youngsters to the National Assembly is not a true measure of its appeal among younger generations. Will Macron really bring ‘change’? If so, in what way?
