Editorial - Criminally liable at 13, but too young to vote at 16?

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If the government's plans go ahead, minors aged 13 will be liable to criminal prosecution.

At the age of 15, young people can submit and sign a petition to Parliament.

At 16, they are allowed to buy alcoholic drinks, take part in works council elections and whizz around on mopeds.

But as soon as the voting age comes up for debate, everyone suddenly starts beating about the bush. Do young people even know how elections work? Are they even interested in politics? And surely they'll all just vote for extreme parties!

These are the opinions and questions that arise even when the discussion centres on a voluntary right to vote.

This debate could hardly be more hypocritical.

In the last parliamentary election in 2023, a total of 286,739 people were on the electoral roll.

Around 8,000 young people with Luxembourgish nationality were aged 16 or 17 at that time. If they were all to vote, that would represent just under three per cent of the electorate at the time. But how many would actually make use of this right?

This is not a trivial question.

After all, in 2023, almost 13 per cent of those eligible to vote did not cast a ballot, despite voting being compulsory. Seven per cent of the ballots cast were blank or invalid.

And how many of the others follow the political debates in parliament, read election manifestos, or vote out of frustration or on the basis of personal preference? How many know what the role of the Council of State is and what the work of members of parliament entails? And yet, at the same time, we accuse young people of not being interested in politics or of not understanding it?

This is not an argument against political education. It is an argument against double standards. Yes, anyone who goes to the polls should at least know what the point of it is, what happens to their vote, and what MPs or local councillors do. And perhaps they should also have a certain basic understanding of how institutions work.