The Left Party in the Saxon state parliament is pushing for the voting age to be lowered to 16. Specifically, they are concerned with state and local elections. This already applies to the European elections. Following a hearing in parliament on Wednesday, parliamentary group leader Rico Gebhardt referred to the practice in other federal states. "More than two thirds of 16 and 17-year-olds in Germany are already allowed to vote in local and district elections. In Berlin, a CDU-led senate wants to lower the voting age for elections to the House of Representatives to 16." In Saxony, on the other hand, the situation is absurd.
"Saxony is grotesquely reminiscent of the small central Swiss cantons of Appenzell-Ausserrhoden and Appenzell-Innerrhoden, which refused to introduce women's suffrage until the 1980s," emphasized Gebhardt. But at some point, this also came to an end there. The patchwork of electoral laws in Germany is also becoming a constitutional problem with regard to the equal treatment of young people. In the next coalition agreement at the latest, there will be no way around the reduction.
Gebhardt called on the CDU to abandon its blockade stance. "It is not credible to deny young people the maturity to vote. 16-year-olds can become members of the CDU without restrictions, but in Saxony they cannot vote for the CDU."
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