Right-wing extremism: Children and young adults are worried about Potsdam meetings, survey shows

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Many children and young people are worried about the conspiratorial meeting in Potsdam (symbolic image)

Photo: Michael Gstettenbauer / IMAGO

According to a survey, a meeting of right-wing networkers in Potsdam left its mark on children and young adults in the country.

This is what a current survey suggests.

According to the representative online survey commissioned by the Körber Foundation, three quarters of 12 to 25 year olds took part in the research about the meeting.

58 percent of those surveyed are concerned that they or someone they know could be affected by the “remigration” plan discussed there.

When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that a large number of people with a migration history should leave the country - even under duress and even if they have a German passport.

The background is reports from the media company “Correctiv” about a meeting on November 25th in Potsdam, which was also attended by AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the ultra-conservative Values ​​Union.

The figurehead of the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he spoke about “remigration” there.

Anger, sadness and fear

According to the now published survey, which was carried out in February by the opinion research institute Ipsos among 2,000 young people in Germany, of the 35 percent of those surveyed who have a migrant background, 73 percent said they were worried.

When faced with the news, young people were dominated by feelings of anger (37 percent), sadness (31 percent) and fear (24 percent).

“From our contacts with educational institutions and our project environments, we know that the plans for mass expulsions place a heavy burden on children and young people in Germany,” says Sven Tetzlaff, head of the Democracy and Cohesion Department at the Körber Foundation, in view of the results.

"Your concerns and fears are an appeal to politics, society and schools to take action against exclusion and division and to strengthen cohesion."

Accordingly, the majority of children and young people demand an open approach to the topic.

47 percent of those surveyed see other parties as having a duty to do something about “remigration” plans.

More than a third of young people therefore also think it is important to demonstrate against it themselves, which 23 percent of those surveyed have done in recent weeks at demonstrations against right-wing extremism.

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