The European Parliament is still in its summer recess until 1 September. The European Youth Forum has used the summer break to take a closer look at the young MEPs under the age of 35 in each country.

It is particularly remarkable that five countries did not elect any members under 35 to parliament, namely Belgium, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg and Romania.

Are you surprised that there are so few young MEPs in the European Parliament? How could the representation of young voices be improved?

Source: Youth Forum, as of August 2024

  • copd@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Meh I wouldn’t want anyone under 25 speaking in parliament. 35 is a good boundary to consider being “young” for such an elite political position

    • trollercoaster
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      4 months ago

      What makes old people better than young people for such a great “elite political position”? Deserve younger people no proper representation in parliament? And no, older people can’t adequately represent young people, because they lived their youths long ago, under entirely different circumstances.

      Also, if we have such an aggressive age cap towards lower ages, shouldn’t we have an age cap towards higher ages, too? I am above that proposed age cap of yours, yet I am sick of being governed by a bunch of borderline senile geezers.

        • trollercoaster
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          4 months ago

          I am getting why you’re arguing for a cap at the low end, but with present day full-time career politicians, 40 year old career politicians don’t really have any more real life experience than 22 years old career politicians, because all they have ever done for a living was being a career politician.