|
BERLIN, Sept. 23-- One day before the German federal election, campaigners from the organization, Smaller Than Five, are still out on the streets, mobilizing people to vote in order to keep the representation of voters of the far-right AfD low. Smaller Than Five, with the agenda to urge voters not to give the AfD the 5 percent of votes it needs to get into German parliament, is one of several campaigns emerged in the wake of Brexit to motivate young people to vote during this year's federal election. With Brexit and the U.S. election as wake-up calls, German youngsters came to realize they must fight for their own future, first of all, through electoral participation. Nils Hirsch, a 29-year-old doctorate student in linguistics in Berlin, told Xinhua that people with university degree generally score a big turnout, but "especially this time, because they want to make sure the right-wing force will not get strong." "After the election of American president Donald Trump, young people realized they may end up with such people in power," he added. Jule Koenneke, a program coordinator of the youth-led campaign "Democracy needs you", said in the campaign's publicity video on YouTube: "It's very important that young people engage and go to the polling stations, especially now when you see young people were extremely underrepresented and stayed regrettably at home when the Brexit referendum took place." Koenneke said, in the case of Brexit, the future of the young was decided by older generations. "I hope the same will not happen here." | 
