Danke, Mr. Trump!

The morning after was like waking up from a bad dream. The whole day I felt like I was sleepwalking.

The conversations were short and far from fruitful. Nobody knew what to say. Everyone was frightened, frozen or simply clueless as to what to expect now. I only knew that it would be a day that all of us would remember forever.

The night before, Donald J. Trump had been elected as the next president of the United States of America. On Wednesday November 9th, the US, Europe and the whole world was shocked. Markets crashed, politicians hectically called each other and gave statements expressing their worries and people suddenly woke up from a long phase of political stability.

Sick and tired of politics – a lost generation?

In Germany, the 21st century has been relatively calm. The elite took turns at the presidency and people decayed into a state of political apathy. Above all, the young generation was not convinced that their vote or voice would be counted nor heard. So, they refrained from participating in the usual forms of political action our democracies are built on. In the past, it was claimed repeatedly that the youth is politically not interested. They were blamed for the low turnouts at elections and for not participating in political parties.

The most worrisome aspect about this is the low trust in politics. “Young people between 12 and 25 have little confidence in mainstream political parties. These are perceived as well-oiled machines, which cannot be influenced from outside. Young people feel neglected by politicians. 69% of them endorse the statement: “Politicians don’t care what I think”, confirms Klaus Hurrelmann, who is co- author of the Shell Study, that surveys the political interest of young people and professor at the Hertie School of Governance where he teaches Public Health and Education, in an article. The recently published study Generation What? verifies the skepticism of the 18 to 34 years old Germans towards politics. In Europe, an overwhelming majority of 82% has no trust in politics. However, young Germans differ from the majority of Europeans and “only” 23% of them don’t trust in politics. But this is still a big share when compared to other generations.

All these studies and statistics drew quite a pessimistic picture. The young generation was not willing to participate in political movements, parties or elections. So the question became: Is Europe steering towards a victory of right-wing populist leaders because of the young generations political inactivity? How does the future for Germany look like if nobody is politically active anymore?

But then November 8th 2016 happened, Trump was elected as the president of the US and something changed.

After this fateful day, German people, especially the youth started to engage themselves in political initiatives, protests, as well as registering with interest groups or parties. People that were never interested in politics before, now bring up the topic at cozy evenings at a bar. College students are starting to talk about the upcoming elections and young people genuinely seem to want to do something about the rise of right-wing populism. Political inactivity among young people seems to be history.

Old vs. Young – the clash of two generations

Since Trumps victory in the US many young people have taken to the streets to express their collective anger. One such example, is the Pulse of Europe, a movement founded in Frankfurt in the aftermath of Trumps victory and now manages to bring people all over Europe to the streets. “We are convinced that the majority of people believe in the fundamental idea of the European Union and its reformability and development and does not want to sacrifice it to nationalist tendencies. Unfortunately, mostly

negative and destructive voices are heard in public! Therefore: Let us become louder and more visible”, the organizers write on their homepage.

Julia is 25 years old, lives in Frankfurt and is engaging in the movement. “The Pulse of Europe is necessary to counterbalance the anti-European movements that are visible almost everywhere in Europe. Pulse of Europe visualizes how many people think the European Union is important” she explains. Despite being politically active for a long time, talking about politics with her friends and

engaging in an Amnesty International group, it is the first movement Julia is going to the streets for. The main reason for that are the upcoming elections in France and Germany and the fear that the right-wing party Front National and their leader Marine Le Pen could win, using the same rhetoric of hate and fear that Trump did in the US. “I think it is pretty cool that the Pulse of Europe spread to so many cities and countries in such a short period of time”, Julia says. “This shows that the people in all European countries want that the Union continues to exist.”

Such movements are especially appealing for young Germans as they identify themselves as Europeans and a majority of them rejects right-wing populist ideas as the study Generation What shows. According to this study 78% of young people between 18 and 34 years think that the rise of right-wing populism is worrisome. Besides, the data shows that these age group is very open-minded and has a

liberal view of the world. Thus, especially young people were shocked by the Brexit and Trumps victory and now this is what drives them to the streets. Mainly because this is not what most young people feel their generation stands for and is certainly not what most of them voted for.

The Brexit turnout shows that 75% of voters between 18 and 24 wanted to remain in the EU. And in the US a similar pattern is visible: Only 37% of the age group 18-29 voted for Trump. In both cases it was the 50+ generation that decided the elections. This is especially frustrating when taking into

account that it is the younger generation that has to live with these decisions in the long run. “The unexpected vote in Britain to leave the European Union and the surprise election of Donald Trump in the US mainly came down to older voters. The majority of young people in the UK voted remain and in the US for Hillary Clinton– if they took part at all. Voter turnout among young people was relatively low in both countries. And so the young generation could have made a difference” writes Hurrelmann.

This is exactly what drives them to the street now. They want to make a difference. Jochen, who is 24 years old and is, like Julia, protesting with the Pulse of Europe in Frankfurt thinks that the movement is the first of its kind

that is standing for something and not against it. Therefore, he participates. “Moreover, Europe is something that is very important to me. I am already worried for a long time that the huge amount of anti-European movements puts something at stake that might be able to leave its mark on my life in a positive way in the future: the European Union.” Jochen hopes that Pulse of Europe becomes so popular that the German parties must agree to the European idea.

In general, the younger generation prefers new forms of political participation, like online-petitions or engagement in local interest groups. They seem to prefer engaging in civil society projects where they can see a direct outcome of their work. A survey of from the Forsa-Institute shows that around 60% of the young generation are willing to participate in a protest and stand up for their interest, like the Pulse of Europe. And the Shell Study from 2015 shows that they are engaged in community projects and very active online but they don’t believe that their voice is heard by exercising their traditional democratic rights. Professor Hurrelmann confirms this: “Youth-related interests, helping the weak and needy, involvement in security, organization and communal life, the environment, the integration of foreigners and local change are top issues.”

Young influent to political parties

Thus, the real problem is widespread political mistrust towards well-established parties and politicians. But the success of Trump seems to have had a deep impact on the attitude of Germany’s young generations in this regard, too. Vanessa is 20 years old and lives in Jena. In October 2016, seeing the political climate of the world veering away from her interests and beliefs, she decided to become a member of the Junge Union, the youth organization of the German CDU. “The main reason for me to become a member of a political party was that I wanted to be part of politics and not only talk about it”, she explains. “I was fed up by people that complained about politics all the time but did not want to change the situation.”

However, Professor Hurrelmann is not so optimistic regarding the relationship of the young generation with political parties. “Young people want to experience how they can make a difference through political participation. They want to feel they can change things, but they don’t think political parties would enable them to do so. Because they don’t see this possibility, they turn their backs”, he says. If

Vanessa wants to join the big CDU in a couple of years, she will be in the minority Hurrelmann claims: “The average German party member is 60 years old. And only 8 per cent are under age 30. Thus, any person joining a party as a young man or woman will be part of an absolute minority, generation-wise.”

However, in autumn of 2016 with the victory of Donald Trump something might have changed. In Germany, especially left-wing parties like the SPD and Die Linke could successfully grow their membership by a significant number. As the numbers show the German Green party was one of the parties that attained growth thanks to Trump’s election, too. The party closed 2016 with 61.600 members in total, a new record for them. The membership increased by 3,67% in total.

Moreover, in 2016 even 46,4% and thus almost half of the new members were younger than 36 years old. So, the young people seem to be starting to engage more and more in the political process and political parties since the

election of Donald Trump. But is this really an effect of his victory in the US?

In this regard the numbers clearly show: 1.600 new

members signed up for a membership between 1st of October and 31st of December alone. When compared to the new memberships before Trump this number becomes even more significant. The other three quarters of the year a total number of 700 people signed up for the membership of the Green Party. This means in the last quarter of 2016 more than twice as many members were generated as the rest of the year put together. Taking this into account it is reasonable to say that Trumps victory in the US and the shock of Brexit mobilized the young generation in Germany. Now, in a post-Trump and post-Brexit world, more young people are engaging in political parties. Especially the left-wing parties in Germany have seemed to benefit from the political turbulence of 2016.

Vanessa hopes that she can make a change with her engagement in the Junge Union. Besides, it is very important for her that the voice of her generation in heard and understood in politics and by the older generations. “I hope I can strengthen the understanding between those two generations with my engagement” she explains. And of course, Vanessa wants to have a good time: “I think politics should 160 first and foremost be fun.”

The end of political inactivity?

In Germany, there are signs that political inactivity among the young generation has been left behind. According to the Shell Study, since 2002 the support for democracy as a system has been on the rise.

In recent years, the trust has constantly risen to 46 per cent in 2015. This trend might be continuing in the upcoming months and hopefully longer. The engagement within political parties and protest movements are only two out of many examples of how the younger generation is getting involved in politics. Now the young generation is observably alarmed by the recent political events and they are taking to their responsibilities as citizens in a democracy with new found vigor.

However, experts like professor Brodocz from the University of Erfurt are not so optimistic: “It is never foreseeable if an organization or movement will be able to change something in the long run.” And professor Kraushaar of the Institute for Social Research in Hamburg adds regarding the current protest movements: “For now I can’t tell if the movement will be successful - so far their claims have been quite pithy. Waving the European flag, singing the anthem and proclaiming ten points – this is not enough. I think the movement won’t life any longer than autumn.”

But he admits: “Obviously, it is important that the silent majority finally woke up, as it is an alarming situation for Europe.” And professor Brodocz fills in: “The crucial point is that those movements already change something as soon as they become active only by presenting a contradictory position towards other movements or parties.”

Whatever the outcome of protest movements like Pulse of Europe or the engagement in political parties might be; it doesn’t have to change the world. The most important aspect is that there are young people that have woken up and feel the need to act anyway they can. This is important and crucial for German society. As the next general elections are coming up in autumn 2017 the engagement of the young generation is even more meaningful. Besides, a lively and healthy democracy needs citizens that are engaging themselves, discussing and sharing ideas. For Jochen who is marching with the Pulse of Europe this is the most important issue of all. “I think a democracy is only able to be work, if you stand up for it” he says.