On 26 February 2024, the Republikon Institute and A Városért Egyesület (Association for the City) organised a roundtable discussion on the role of young people in public life and the possibilities of their involvement at the municipal level. The discussion was moderated by Csaba Horváth, Mayor of Zugló and President of the Association for the City.
Discussion:
Ádám Nagy, youth researcher and managing director of Excenter Kutató- és Fejlesztőközpont (Excenter Research and Development Centre), said that Generation Z is much more politically active than the generations before them in their youth, but it is not yet clear that this generation could be decisive in the next elections. He went on to say that young people can nowadays no longer be addressed in the usual way, but through social media, including influencers. He claimed that Generation Z had not yet had the experience that would organise this age group into a true generation, and based on his research, he could also say that Covid had not been able to play the role of this experience that would bring the generation together.
Dániel Mikecz, political scientist, movement researcher and scientific advisor of the Republikon Institute, said that according to the Europian Social Survey (2023), in Hungary, participation in demonstrations is most active among people under 30, while young people are less active in the institutionalised political sphere (based on voting and visiting politicians). In other words, it cannot be said that young people are not active in the political sphere. He went on to caution that youth is not a homogeneous group, as there are differences between individuals in terms of both economic and human relations. In terms of tendencies, young people have less faith in the political system, as their political socialisation has been less involved in the political system. Finally, he said that today's young people are most easily addressed by local problems and issues.
Orsolya Sudár, the organiser of Szikra Mozgalom (Szikra Movement) in Zugló, explained that parties cannot talk about the people, only about themselves, which is why it is difficult to involve today's young people in party politics. He also stressed that he believes that young people cannot be treated as a homogenous group, as they have different experiences. In his opinion, young people do not need self-representative tools, but the means to actually solve their problems. And Generation Z doesn't have very different problems to older people, as everyone is struggling to get from 1 to 2.
Virág Török, a member of Baloldali Ifjúsági Mozgalom (Societas - Left Youth Movement), said that the majority of young people do not look to party politics for solutions, and also stressed that the majority of young people are politically engaged in issues and not ideologies. This is why it is difficult to link this age group to political parties. Finally, he said that the best force that keeps young people at home is the availability of the right communities and the right care system that they can count on when they are in trouble, but to have these in Hungary, young people here need to be active and fight for them.
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