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1. Young people as voters

2. Young people as political representatives

Young people as voters

The Greek Parliament voted on July 26, 2016 to lower the minimum voting age from 18 to 17 years, as part of a larger overhaul of Greece's electoral laws. In particular, according to article 1 of Law 4406/2016 "Proportional Representation of political parties, expansion of the right to vote and other provisions on the election of deputies", all Greek citizens have the right to vote, particularly citizens who have completed their seventeenth (17th) year of age. Additionally, according to article 4 par. 2 of Presidential Decree 26/2012 for the implementation of the above, January 1st is considered as the date of birth of all those born within the year.

Therefore according to the same Presidential Decree, the young personnel of the Greek Police, the Fire Brigade, and the Military serving in any capacity in the Armed Forces, or in the Coast Guard, who are registered in the electoral rolls of the municipality and serve on the day of the announcement of elections in another municipality may exercise their right to vote in the parliamentary elections either in the municipality where they are registered or in the municipality they serve.

To the best of our knowledge there are no data available from official governmental resources regarding the turnout of young people in latest national/local/European elections.

Young people as political representatives

The right to be elected belongs to Greek citizens who, on the day of the election, have completed their twenty-fifth year of age and have the legal capacity to vote. The age, according to the previous paragraph, is proven by the registration in the register of the municipality. If, in order to complete the age, the year and date of birth must be confirmed, this can only be proven by a birth certificate. In particular, according to gov.gr (the official website of the Greek public administration) these are the legal requirements for citizens that wish to be elected:

a) reside in Greece,

b) have attained the age of 25 and have the legal right to vote,

c) have not been denied the right to vote in Greece,

d) have not been denied or denied the right to vote in their Member State of origin,

e) have resigned from service and positions that are an impediment to election,

f) they are not candidates for European Parliament elections in another EU member state.

To the best of our knowledge, there is no data available from official governmental resources regarding the number of young members of the political parties. Moreover, after contacting the Human Resources department of the Greek Parliament, we were informed that the average age of Greek MPs is 54 years (53.80) and there are only two MPs under the age of 30 (one man and one woman), a percentage of 0.67%.