#cducsu-youth

#cducsu-youth

If things remain the same, or get even worse, I can't see a future here, said Akos, an aspiring teacher, reflecting the sentiments of many young Hungarians.

In 2024, almost 1.2 million people were granted citizenship in EU countries, compared to 762,100 in 2014, according to the EU statistical office.

Worldwide, autocracies are on the rise, populists are gaining momentum, democratic societies are under pressure. Wars, inflation, fear of economic decline are causing great uncertainty. The "Germany-Monitor 2025" shows that the vast majority of Germans believe in democracy, and that support for democracy as a form of government is increasing, especially in the east of the country. This was announced by the Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Germany, Elisabeth Kaiser, in Berlin on Thursday this week:

Political orthodoxy tells us that younger voters tend to be more progressive on issues like immigration. But in recent years, Europe has seen anti-migrant parties surge in the polls and gain youth support across the continent. In Norway, for example, survey data shows that 24 percent of young people favour limiting immigration "to a large extent" and 23 percent "to some extent."

But the party congress comes as Merz faces pressure over a limping economy, poor personal approval ratings and the sustained threat of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of several regional elections. A barometer of the party's mood at the national congress in the southern city of Stuttgart will be whether Merz gets re-elected as party chief with the customary result in the 90 percent range, or less.

Germany's industrial companies have cut around 124,100 jobs last year, showing an increasingly negative trend after 56,000 positions were lost the year before, according to an analysis by auditing firm EY. EY said employment in industry has fallen by about 266,200 jobs, or nearly 5%, since the pre-pandemic year of 2019, with the sharpest reductions recorded in the automotive sector.

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Germany's part-time workforce has indeed increased significantly over the decades, but that is due in large part to families no longer being able to survive on a single income, as well as technological changes that have left many people choosing part-time work over no work at all. Citing data from Germany's federal statistics agency, DeStatis, MIT has pointed out that in 2022, 27% of part-time workers in Germany reported their reasons for not working full-time as simply "a desire to work part-time."