Young Germans eye fringe parties

BERLIN – A new generation of German voters, some born after the fall of the Berlin Wall, are rejecting mainstream parties that have dominated post-war politics and giving their support to new groups on the fringes.

A survey by Infratest dimap released ahead of a September 27 election showed that among 18-24 year old Germans who have decided how they will vote, only 8 per cent plan to support Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc – the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU).A meagre 9 per cent, meanwhile, say they will back the main centre-left party, the Social Democrats (SPD), and their top candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier.These younger voters will not have a huge influence on Sunday’s election as they constitute a mere 10 per cent of the voting population.But their voting preferences send a worrying signal to the big parties that have run every government since the fall of the Nazis and suggest that the German political landscape could fracture further in coming years.Richard Hilmer, the head of Infratest, said neither Merkel nor Steinmeier have targeted younger voters because they are not seen as a crucial bloc.- Nampa- Reuters