Parties have difficulty predicting the political position of 16–17-year-olds. Afroditi Patsouraki is voting because she would like to change the Greek education system.
Crazy, describes the 16-year-old Afroditi Patsouraki excitement about being able to vote in the parliamentary elections.
In Greece today, Sunday, for the first time, everyone who is is allowed to vote born in 2006 (you switch to another service).
In the EU region, such young people only have the right to vote in parliamentary elections, apart from Greece In Malta and Austria (you switch to another service).
– We can solve the future of Greece, Afroditi Patsouraki says.
Greece has been led by one party for four years, the center-right New Democracy. Patsourak’s party choice is not yet sealed, but he supports a multi-party government. He does not want any party to pursue only its own interests.
– The Finnish model of coalition governments would also be welcome in Greece, says Patsouraki.
The school system and unemployment speak to young people
Aphrodite’s twin sister Eleftheria Patsour too in my opinion, the important themes of the elections are the economy and the unemployment rate of people under the age of 25.
It is almost 30 percent.
See in this story how young people try to get by on minimum wages – a part-time employee can earn three euros an hour at the gym.
According to Patsourak, the biggest thing to reform would be the Greek education system.
– Schools don’t teach properly because the teachers know that we go to prep classes in the evenings anyway, Eleftheria Patsouraki sums up.
In Greece, the majority of middle school and high school students take paid supplementary education. Students feel that school education is not enough to survive the high school final exam. Applications to universities in Greece are based on the final exam score, there are no separate entrance exams.
A 17-year-old in the second grade of high school is also in favor of the school reform Panayotis Malamas.
– I’m voting because I want to remove the question bank from the exam system, which prevents many from getting out of class and realizing their dreams, says Malamas.
In the question bank, half of the questions in the upper secondary school exams come from the Ministry of Education, the other half from the teachers.
Malamas likes the election promise of the main left-wing opposition party Syriza, according to which the lowest point limit determined by the Ministry of Education will be removed from the selection of students at universities.
The prime minister approaches teenagers with nose piercings and youth passports
The opinion polls have been led by the governing party New Democracy. Syriza, traditionally supported by generation Z, is lagging behind.
Parties have difficulty predicting the political position of 16–17-year-olds.
Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has tried approach young people on Tiktok (you will switch to another service). He has joked about nose piercings and urged young people to remind their mothers about free mammography screening.
For 18–19-year-olds, Mitsotakis promises a so-called youth passport. The card worth 150 euros is intended to be used for travel and leisure. A similar benefit was granted to young people during the corona pandemic.
A disastrous train accident affects voting decisions
Afroditi Patsouraki believes that the most destructive train accident in the country’s history, which happened in northern Greece in winter, will be reflected in the election result.
Dozens of young people died in the accident.
The accident also brought to the fore the negligence of governments in recent years regarding the safety of the transport infrastructure.
– Young people will definitely vote for small parties against the system, Afroditi Patsouraki guesses.
The far-left MeRA25 has increased its support especially among the 16–24-year-olds. The party proposes, among other things, the abolition of mandatory military service for men.
The rage against the state administration caused by the train accident has also increased the popularity of the far-right Greek National Party. Closed by the Supreme Court (you move to another service) about the party’s elections, because its candidate has been part of the leadership of the Golden Dawn party, which has been declared a criminal organization.
Afroditi Patsouraki thinks that the National Party’s fall from the elections may increase protest votes against the Prime Minister’s party.
– I still don’t think that 17-year-olds would join the stream of nationalists, says Patsouraki.