IMPULS Thorsten Faas, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Armin Schäfer Surprising Election, Surprising Votes Young People and the Early 2025 Federal Election At a glance This paper summarises the results from the Youth Study of the 2025 Federal Election. The study exam ­ined the attitudes, information habits and party pref­erences of young people in the context of the 2025 federal election, in which those under the age of eighteen were not permitted to vote, unlike in the 2024 European election. The findings reveal that young people are exposed to politics through a varie ­ty of channels: social media plays a pivotal role, yet traditional media also retains significant influence. However, striking differences exist within the younger generation: education, gender and place of residence shape political orientation and voting behaviour far more strongly than the undifferentiated public image of“youth” would suggest. Anger Over the Early Election The early federal election of 23 February 2025 was excep ­tional in many ways. For many young people, it had par ­ticularly unpleasant consequences: all those who turned 18 only between the newly scheduled election date(in Febru ­ary) and the originally planned election date(in Septem ­ber) unexpectedly found themselves excluded from voting. Our results show that those affected were far from indiffer ­ent towards the newly scheduled election – they were an ­noyed at being deprived of the opportunity to participate. A Patchwork of Voting Ages The combination of the 2024 European Parliament elec ­tion and the 2025 federal election once again highlighted how unsatisfactory the current situation regarding voting age in Germany is. For the 2024 European election, a vot ­ing age of 16 was applied nationwide for the first time; for the 2025 federal election – just as for some state and lo ­cal elections in certain federal states – the voting age re ­mained 18. Not all young people – despite being directly affected – view this patchwork as a problem. Still, we see notable joy among young people who were eligible to vote in the 2025 federal election, significantly exceeding the levels of joy we observed during the 2024 European election. Conversely, frustration over not being eligible to vote in the 2025 federal election was significantly greater than in the 2024 European Election. The inconsistent vot ­ing age system means that young people are excluded from Germany’s most important election – even though they are allowed to participate in others. These early, po ­Surprising Election, Surprising Votes 1