THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
The 2024 European election is the tenth direct election to the European Parliament and follows the 2019 European election. It will take place from 6 to 9 June 2024 in the 27 member states of the European Union. In Germany and Austria, it will be held on 9 June 2024.
In Germany, citizens and EU foreigners are entitled to vote in the European Parliament elections at which 720 MEPs will be elected.
According to the Federal Returning Officer in Germany, a total of around 64.9 million people are eligible to vote, including around 60.9 million people with a German passport, around 17 per cent of whom have a migrant background, according to a report of the Mediadienst Integration.
According to the microcensus for 2023, an estimated 8.95 million Germans of voting age have a migrant background, which corresponds to 17 per cent of German voters. Around 1.2 million of them have a Turkish migration background.
For the first time, young people aged 16-17 can also vote in the upcoming EU parliamentary elections. More than 45 per cent of them have a migrant background. This shows that voters with a migration background are significantly higher among underage voters.
According to the microcensus, a total of around 1.3 million 16- and 17-year-olds were living in Germany at the end of 2023. The proportion of people with a migration background is particularly high in this age group, which indicates the trend that the proportion of Germans with a migration background will continue to rise in the future.
Unlike the over 60 million German citizens and around four million EU foreigners, the so-called third-country nationals – citizens of a country outside the EU – are generally not allowed to vote in Germany. As things stand, this means that around 6.3 million third-country nationals of voting age are excluded from the European elections, corresponding to about nine per cent of the German population of voting age.
Sola Jolaoso
