The right to vote is to be changed in Berlin. Young people would otherwise not be taken seriously, say the Greens, SPD, Left and FDP. But that’s a mistake, says Gunnar Schupelius.
In Berlin, the minimum age for elections to the House of Representatives is to be lowered from 18 to 16. This was decided by the SPD, the Greens and the Left in their 2021 coalition agreement.
So far, their majority has not been sufficient for the amendment, which would require two-thirds of MPs to vote. But now the FDP has declared its willingness to raise its hand as well. The CDU and AfD stand by their rejection.
The same is true of the BZ readers who voted at the last TED: 99.4 percent of the callers spoke out against the right to vote from the age of 16. BZ reader Willy O. Burau even believes in an ulterior motive: “The parties only expect that the predominantly green-alternatively raised young people will add red-green-red and yellow votes.”
Voting at the age of 16 is an old demand of the Greens, which was gradually adopted by other parties. Berlin’s Greens parliamentary group leader, Silke Gebel, explained once again why the voting age had to be lowered, because “even 16-year-olds are responsible citizens and have the right to help shape things”.
That’s not true, because you only reach the age of majority at the age of 18. With her error, however, Ms. Gebel gives an important key word: Why isn’t the age of majority also discussed in connection with the right to vote?
Being mature means taking full responsibility for one’s own actions, bearing the consequences, which can be momentous. A democratic election has far-reaching consequences, it decides the government and the future of the country.
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Anyone who claims that 16-year-olds are already in a position to fully assess and bear the consequences of their voting decision would have to give them full responsibility in all other areas of life as well, i.e. prefer to come of age.
In fact, neither the age of consent nor the voting age should be brought forward. Because at 16 you can’t judge things as well as you can later, as older people know from their own experience. As a teenager you tend to extremes, to irrational behavior that you later regret.
It’s an advantage if you can leave important decisions to adults. The immaturity acts like a shelter in which one lives more freely than later when the burden of all the responsibility weighs heavily on one. We should give young people the freedom to be crazy and extreme, without it getting really serious.
Proponents of lowering the voting age claim that young people will not be heard and taken seriously if they are not allowed to vote. But that’s not true. They are heard, but the decision is made for them, and that’s a good thing until they come of age.
Is Gunnar Schupelius right? Call: 030/2591 73153 or email: [email protected]
