Next time, young people will also have a say in who governs the Berlin parliament. BZ editor Andra Fischer comments Photo: Picture Alliance/dpa/BZ-Montage
By Andra Fischer
My 16-year-old daughter has already voted twice. Once as a political project in elementary school, once at high school. With ballot paper, booth, cross.
She found it exciting – and took the secret ballot very seriously. There was only so much that could be gotten out of her: it wasn’t the FDP that elected her.
In Berlin, 16 and 17 year olds will soon be able to vote in the state parliament. The Senate passed a bill Tuesday to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. This will now be further discussed and decided in the House of Representatives.
Many will say: Yes, great, young people like this should also have a say. Motto: It can’t be that only the adults, the old people, set the direction.
And many others will say: At 16 you are not mature enough, not informed enough, a teenager’s head is always somewhere completely different. Overwhelm could also be an argument.
There is certainly no absolute truth about this. A 16-year-old can have a point of view, interest and insight. But she can’t have it either. This also applies to adult voters.