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The Rightward Turn of Europe’s Youth: A Closer Look

With the rise in popularity of the extreme right across Europe, including among young people, many have started questioning if the youth is becoming more conservative. Diving into the topic, we found two important insights about Gen Z and conservatism:

  1. Voting right doesn’t mean Gen Z rejects liberal values.
    Most young people are embracing liberal values. Looking at how they view climate change, LGTBQ+ rights, and abortion for example. However, over the last decade, there has been a surge in feelings of hopelessness and societal discontent among the youth. Young voters are particularly concerned about security, influenced by recent geopolitical tensions and conflicts in Europe, job security, health and climate change. Research shows that 75% of 16-25-year-olds in 10 countries believe the future is frightening.

    Traditional parties are believed to fall short in their efforts to address their concerns. This leads to a rise in support for parties that challenge the status quo (often extreme right). People that feel economically insecure and socially marginalized are more likely to vote extreme right.

  2. There’s a big attitude gap between women and men on the topic of gender equality
    Young men have shown little progress toward embracing liberal values over the past decade, while young women have increasingly adopted them. Especially on the topic of gender equality. International research by IPSOS found that there is a 20% point difference between Gen Z men and women when it comes to the statement, “We have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men.” One possible explanation is that women have gained better positions in society and embraced more ‘traditionally male attributed values’ whereas the other way around this is less the case, young men are often struggling with the tight, stereotypical view of what it means to be a man.


The answer to the question if Gen Z’ers have become more conservative will vary depending on the topic you zoom in on and if you ask Gen Z women or men. However, what might be more interesting to look into is the reasons why young people today might vote more right (even if that goes against their more liberal values).

What role can we play in making young people less scared for their futures? Can we give them a more hopeful perspective and add new narratives around migration and climate change? Can we address the issues they are facing around housing shortages, job security and financial stability?

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Kim Pillen

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Kim Pillen

Consultant

Before Kim Pillen started as a trend consultant at TrendsActive, she worked for four years as a creative strategist at Dept. For brands such as Philips, bol.com, Beiersdorf, JBL, and the Consumers’ Association, she built (online) campaign, brand, and social media strategies. After four years, she decided that she wanted to better understand people and society in order to advise brands more effectively. That’s how she ended up at TrendsActive. Here, she can do what she loves most: digging into people’s needs and then working with brands to see how and where they can be relevant and meaningful.

Douwe Knijff

Researcher

Douwe is fascinated by how people work. With a background in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (Bachelor) and Psychology (Master) and an analytical mind he tries figure out how societal shifts manifest themselves through social culture and human behaviour.

Aljan De Boer

Keynote speaker

Aljan has been widely recognized as an inspiring professional speaker on the critical trends that will shape society in the decades to come. He works as the Head of Inspiration at TrendsActive, a trend consultancy from the Netherlands using social science to human-proof business decision for brands like

  • Disney
  • Vodafone
  • Hugo Boss
  • ASR
  • Rabobank

Next to his role at TrendsActive he is the Community Director at the Institute for Real Growth where he inspires and connects a global community of +400 CMOs.  

He has been on the board of the Dutch Platform of Innovative Marketing for almost a decade. Regular speaker and moderator for the Dutch Marketing Awards and 3 times winner of the best of MIE. 

Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist

Kees his purpose is to help ambitious leaders and brands to human-proof their business. In 2003 he founded TrendsActive, a trend consultancy enabling brands to become more human centric.

Kees consults global brands like

  • Disney
  • The Coca-Cola Company
  • Asics
  • Discovery Channel
  • Swiss Life
  • Vodafone

and many more.

Next to being the founder of TrendsActive, he is also initiator of the first academic trend master for executives at the University of Utrecht and is initiator of various trend studies and white papers on subjects like trust, meaning, visual culture & generations.

Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist

Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist