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Vocational students from the Konrad Zuse School discussed with members of the state parliament at “dialogP”. The young people brought up their own topics and then voted on them.
Hünfeld – In the end, an unexpected mood emerged: The students who discussed with members of the parties represented in the Hessian state parliament as part of the “dialogP” project at the Konrad Zuse School were themselves no longer in favor of the introduction of voting rights from the age of 16, even though most of them are not yet of age. Only 8 out of 62 participants voted yes.
In the discussion rounds, they apparently noticed that many political issues are not that easy to decide and that there are important arguments against lowering the voting age. Overall, the event was a success: When else do students have the opportunity to come into such close contact with state politicians and experience what kind of considerations they make and how they weigh up the pros and cons until they reach a vote?
“dialogP”: Students in Hünfeld discuss with politicians
“dialogP” is organized nationwide by the non-profit and non-partisan association Kumulus. The responsible head of politics at the Zuse School, Henning Ahrens, had four classes together early on who wanted to take part. “The students have registered themselves; they are happy about such an action that motivates them to get involved in politics,” he told our newspaper. The students came up with the topics that were discussed on Friday (February 26).
On behalf of the state government, Thomas Hering (CDU) and Tanja Hartdegen (SPD) faced the school classes. Gerhard Bärsch (AfD), Daniel May (Alliance 90/Greens) and Matthias Büger (FDP) were there for the opposition. In addition to the voting age, topics included a possible compulsory subject of “democracy education”, a “mental health” subject, more career orientation in schools and free public transport nationwide.
Each politician sat with each class for ten minutes and then moved on to the next round. In the end it was said that they had limited themselves too much to presenting their positions, had not listened to the students enough and had not addressed solutions too often. However, since the classes were noticeably inexperienced in political discussions, it was often seen that they timidly asked a question and then let the politicians speak for a longer period of time without standing up to them.
The majority of students want to learn more about democracy
Nevertheless, FDP man Büger thanked Büger for the “very nice discussion”, and the Green May gave his interlocutors further arguments to add new aspects to the conversation. In general, all MPs made it clear to the students that political questions are often not so easy to decide and that a lot of things have to be taken into account. The final vote in the plenary session showed: Despite financing difficulties and possible injustice, most students are in favor of free public transport (45 yes votes).
All 62 participants are in favor of more career orientation, even though as vocational students they are already a long way from choosing a career. After the discussions, the majority were no longer convinced of the subject of “mental health” despite apparently major problems with school stress: 39 no votes were counted.
The opinion on the compulsory subject “Democracy Education” showed that the “dialogP” project was worthwhile. Even if the curriculum is full enough and politicians were more in favor of flexible treatment in lessons, there was a clear majority: 56 were in favor of learning more about democracy in a fixed course. (By Andreas Alt)
