Last Thursday I attended - as I usually do - one of the briefings organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Croatia on behalf of the Spanish Embassy. One of the functions conferred to the diplomatic missions of Spain - Embassies or Consulates - located in a member state of the European Union is to know the position adopted by the host country regarding the priority issues on the agenda set by the European Union (Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Middle East Conflict, Green Agenda, Migration and Asylum, are just a few examples).
At the end of the meeting, I began to think about the correlation of forces in the European parliamentary spectrum resulting after the European elections of June 9, necessary to revalidate many of the pending files of the previous five-year period, whose diagnosis is recklessly skewed to the right of the European People's Party. The increase of far-right and nationalist groups in founding countries of the European Union - the ultimate expression of the success of a supranational integration experience - such as Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and France, as well as in Austria or Spain, should lead us to a deep reflection on the current political system and the model of coexistence in which we want to develop our vital projection.
In Germany, 16% of those under 24 years of age chose to cast their vote for the ultranationalist party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD); in France, where the second round of elections managed to stop, at least in this attempt, the advance of the far-right Marine Le Pen, we have seen how in the June elections 80% of those under 30 years of age opted for extremist forces: 48% of young voters cast their ballots for the new popular front of the extreme left and 33% for the Lepenist national rally.
With relative relief, Spain has emerged among the five major countries of the community club where the reactionary far right has not placed itself in the top positions of the bench, although it has broken strongly into the electoral landscape and seems to have delighted a profile of young voter, mostly men under 44 years of age.
As spokesperson - re-elected for one more year after the elections of July 14 - of the Europeanist association "Equipo Europa" - the greatest associative success of youth and Europeanist character in Spain - I have focused this last year on showing the work of the European Union to the whole of civil society, always focusing on youth, to which I belong and humbly represent from this space of non-partisan militancy and with the vocation of sharing European values as the foundation for a prosperous future.
Despite the rise of the far right in Europe, different surveys attribute to Generation Z the same problems in the different member states in which these anti-system forces have burst in with the force of a more reactive than proactive vote: the concern for stable and quality employment, inflation and the cost of living, and immigration. Something paradoxical about this situation is the displacement suffered by issues that - in my opinion - are priorities such as world peace and climate change, which suggests that the European Union continues to preserve the objective for which it was originally created: ensuring peace in the European continent.
All of the above would mean that young people living in this moment of history are more racist or our view of the global world is more individualistic. I sincerely do not believe so. However, it is obvious that reactionary and ultranationalist forces have abandoned the old formulas to adapt to an ecosystem driven by interconnectivity, excessive opinion, in which social networks and new technologies make it very easy.
What is beyond doubt is the great handling that political parties have demonstrated in the use of high-impact social networks, with a clear target: the young voter. A clear example of this is Tik Tok, in which, as Erik Ahrens, the activist and social media advisor of Maximiliam Krah, candidate for the European elections of AfD who was expelled from the leadership for whitewashing the Nazi SS in an interview with the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica", warned, "allows to talk about the daily problems of the people" without "your messages are verified or discredited".
Therefore, this algorithm prize allows populist political forces to recurrently erode democratic institutions through an "authentic" discourse, full of hatred fueled by lies and insidious loaded with verbal violence, with easy narratives at the stroke of a tweet, experts in fueling distrust and capitalizing on the despair and frustration of people in times of crisis.
Faced with such a scenario, European youth are designed a discouraging, precarious and uncertain present and future, with the reiterative quote that we will live worse than our parents, lacking solutions to mental health, housing, climate change. With this breeding ground it is explained that young people today are more unhappy, placing suicide as the leading cause of death in this sector of the population. Despite all the above, I firmly believe that we live in a moment of great fortune, for many reasons: access to education, health, mobility, languages, peace, in short, opportunities. Political forces in general should rethink their vision of the world and offer a hopeful scenario to young people, setting aside the catastrophic message of their speeches. Lamentations for political skepticism in electoral appointments can be reversed if they create channels of conversation appropriate to the moment in which we live. Not paying attention to us can never be a solution. We are prepared young people, with enthusiasm and commitment. If they bet on reducing the noise of insult, increase the volume to listen to those who think differently from you and advance in the agreements, much can be built.
Diego Ruiz Barrios, jurist, Spokesperson of Equipo Europa Canarias and Fellow at the Spanish Embassy in Croatia.
