Monday 29 November 2021
“Implementation more than questionable”
CDU against lowering the voting age to 16
The traffic light coalition plans to enable young people aged 16 and over to vote in the federal elections in the future. The CDU, however, firmly rejects the lowering of the voting age. There is also disagreement on other points.
The CDU rejects the planned lowering of the voting age to 16 years by the future Ampel-Coalition. “The right to vote belongs to the age of majority and thus also to the legal capacity. Period,” said CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”.
With its coalition agreement, the traffic light presented a “colorful potpourri of ideas, the implementation of which seems more than questionable,” added the CDU politician. The traffic light parties want to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 years. However, an amendment to the Basic Law is necessary for the project.
The traffic lights are also sending the wrong signals when it comes to migration, said Ziemiak. “By expanding the right to stay for tolerated persons, the separation between the right to asylum and immigration to work is being weakened.” This would create false incentives for irregular migration and make it more difficult “that the right of asylum is there for those really in need of protection”.
If the new government implements all of its ideas on migration, this will lead to additional “pull factors”, criticized Ziemiak. The Ampel-Coalition had announced that it would accelerate asylum procedures and at the same time start a “repatriation offensive”.