“Intergenerational Justice”
Berlin wants to lower the voting age to 16
4/21/2022, 6:04 p.m
Until now, young Berliners under the age of 18 simply have to accept who governs the capital. That should change now, both Red-Green-Red and the FDP are demanding. So far, the plans have always failed because of the CDU.
The red-green-red government coalition in Berlin has agreed with the FDP parliamentary group to lower the voting age to 16. “Young people deserve a vote,” said Raed Saleh, head of the SPD parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives. FDP parliamentary group leader Sebastian Czaja called the extension of electoral rights a “sign of lived intergenerational justice”.
“The decisions that we are currently making politically, this generation must later take over and be responsible for,” Czaja continued. The fact that today’s 16-year-olds are very committed is shown, for example, in their commitment to better education policy. Together with the FDP, the red-green-red coalition in Berlin has the necessary two-thirds majority for the necessary constitutional amendment.
So far, the lowering of the voting age has always failed because of the CDU: “The right to vote is linked to the age of majority and thus also to the legal capacity. Period,” said CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”.