The devalued youth – Diepresse.com

Again a campaign from the circus coalition!  » Was the first comment of the same age on Good Friday, when the news seeded: The climate Ö18 is abolished.

In 2024, the Ö18 ticket was introduced under Minister Leonore Gewessler for all 18-year-olds-combined with the vision of not only understood mobility as a locomotion, but as a social right for young people. The offer immediately used around a quarter of the beneficiaries, many planned it.

But the abrupt end came on Good Friday. The youth representatives were only indirectly informed – initial information seeped through late – too late in order to organize a valid reporting slip for the application in good time.

The fact that the responsible bodies did not even know underlines the methods that the young people feel. The fact is: Many only learned about the attitude when the ticket was abolished. Anyone who tried it that day had to find out that the young people were systematically ignored.

In an OTS report, it was said that the use was too low-only a quarter used the ticket. A reason that appears logical, on the superficial point of view, but turns out to be cynical on closer inspection. Because why should you delete an offer if it is not used strongly anyway?

Unreflected excuse

But more is overlooked. Many want to redeem it when it really makes sense: after the Matura, at the beginning of the study to explore the country. This decision appears contradictory at a time when youth mobility and domestic trips are to be promoted. Anyone who refers to the « low demand » does not provide fact-based evaluation, but rather an unreflected excuse for the singing and soundless funeral of a project that never had a chance.

A social democratic department has been responsible for the step – a department that plays the low use against those who were dependent on it. Social democracy must now bend to take this step – and, like the entire government, lose the trust of the youth. The feeling remains that the youth have been politically devalued.

But the youth is not a target group, but an investment. The social contract that makes education accessible free of charge and culture must not end in mobility. Mobility is part of social participation.

It takes a policy that is committed to the youth who listens to us and ensures that there is a policy for which the youth go to the electoral booth. It would be a shame to use a generation that loses confidence in politics. It takes a change in which youth is respected as well as all other age groups.

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