The 2023 General Elections showed that young people are not merely extras in the political arena, yet they also fail to find a stage that suits them. All structures of society, the political world, civil society, the business world, everyone is looking for ways to reach young people and to work efficiently with them, asking the question: How can we attract young people / how can we reach young people?

The assumption behind this question is that there’s a lack of interest and awareness among young people, suggesting that this gap can be bridged with alternative communication and calls for responsibility. However, young people are aware of and deliberately avoid structures they do not want to be part of, or cannot be part of. In other words, reaching them is not a matter of medium.

Firstly, there’s a problem with the places they are invited to; secondly, those inviting young people are calling for participation not to enable them to realize themselves but to incorporate them into what already exists.

To empower young people socially, psychologically, and economically, to increase their participation in decisions, politics, and the social sphere, and to reduce intergenerational distance by eliminating prejudices, it’s necessary to deeply understand young people and find ways to ensure their voices are heard.

CORE aimed with this research to voice what young people expect from politics during the local election period, their perceptions of local governance, their emotional states, and what they hope for from the municipalities to be elected.