Czechs in Their Thirties Have Given Up on Politics: They're Being Called the "Abandoned Generation"

Czechs in their thirties are drifting further and further away from politics. Their share among MPs, senators and municipal councillors keeps shrinking, and in last year's parliamentary elections this age group posted the lowest turnout of any voter category. Experts and lawmakers now call them the "abandoned generation" — people who feel forgotten by politicians, even though they are the ones who will eventually shoulder the biggest tax burden.

According to political scientists, the share of MPs and municipal representatives in their thirties has dropped by seven percentage points over the past thirty years, while representation among older age groups has grown accordingly. The numbers speak for themselves: not a single sitting regional governor is under 40, and among city mayors, people in their early thirties hold just five of twenty-seven posts.

Alice Mikulášová, founder of the Institute for Youth Political Participation, explains it this way: many people now in their thirties voted, in their youth, for politicians who promised to look after their future — and now that this future has arrived, they feel simply forgotten. It's not so much indifference, she says, as disappointment: these people work, pay taxes, want to buy homes and are raising small children, yet run into problems like a severe shortage of nurseries and kindergartens, despite politicians' promises to the contrary.

Josef Flek, a 38-year-old MP for STAN, admits that interest in his generation pales in comparison with the attention lavished on the youngest voters. "Look at campaigns like '30 before 30' — there's nothing like that for us, and there wasn't when we were twenty either," he says. According to him, his peers are focused on practical matters — work, business, starting a family — rather than politics, even though political decisions affect them the most.

Vojtěch Krňanský, a 37-year-old MP for the Motorists and, for eight years, mayor of the town of Chrast, adds that launching a political career at this age is a risky move that can easily tarnish one's reputation. "Being politically active and living a quiet life are hardly compatible these days. Being mayor is a 24/7 job," he says.

According to research agency STEM, voters aged 33 to 37 had the lowest turnout of any group in last year's parliamentary elections — nearly a fifth lower than among people over 68. STEM analyst Martin Kratochvíl links this to the fact that people in their thirties are at their most demanding life stage: raising children, paying off mortgages, and generally more focused on their private lives than on public affairs.

Data from Ipsos show that, compared with younger voters, people in their thirties are less likely to discuss politics, follow party programmes, take part in campaigns, or file official complaints and petitions. Political scientist Michal Pink attributes this to the fact that this generation hasn't faced serious material hardship (aside from the Covid pandemic) and generally doesn't feel the kind of acute need that would push people to seek help from the state.

Experts also note that thirty-somethings are a notoriously hard audience to reach through political communication: unlike young people, who can be engaged via TikTok, or pensioners, accustomed to billboards and campaign platforms, this group is far more skeptical and demands concrete, clearly explained policies and honest dialogue. Mikulášová adds that a form of "adultism" toward younger people still persists in Czech politics, leaving many thirty-somethings with little motivation to get involved.

Even so, experts believe this group represents an untapped political reserve. "Whoever manages to win the trust of younger middle-aged voters could win elections. But it's an extremely difficult task," Mikulášová notes. Data suggests that people in their thirties tend to lean toward today's opposition parties, meaning the opposition has the best shot at winning them over — provided it learns to speak their language and honestly admits what's working and what isn't.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz