German Chancellor Friedrich Merz got a birthday cake at the UN climate summit in Turkey this week. But he wasn’t there to eat it. Meanwhile, in Berlin, climate activists marked his 71st birthday on Friday with a symbolic chocolate cake. Their message: they too want to reach that age on a livable planet.
Fridays for Future is taking its demands to German streets. Demonstrations were planned in more than 70 German cities on Friday, November 13.
Under the slogan “Pay your climate debt,” protesters in the German capital demanded more funding for climate protection and adaptation in developing countries, alongside a global phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
Protesters called on German lawmakers to ‘pay your climate debt’Image: Sven Kaeuler/dpa/picture alliance
Germany provided €4.7 billion ($5.2 billion) in federal budget funds for international climate financing in 2025 — below its €6 billion pledge.
But the protest movement is no longer drawing the crowds it once did. In September 2019, Fridays for Future mobilized an estimated 1.4 million people across Germany. Five years later, that figure fell to around 75,000 at a comparable nationwide strike.
Merz is unpopular with young voters
This comes as broader youth frustration with German politics grows. “I don’t feel addressed by the chancellor unfortunately,” Kim, a protester in Berlin, told DW.
From military service to affordable housing and climate policy, younger Germans are questioning whether their concerns are being heard.
A recent nationwide poll found that 82% of Germans believe politicians do not adequately represent young people’s interests. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, just 5% trust Merz’s conservatives to champion their concerns, compared with 3% for their Social Democratic coalition partners.
Merz is not the first German chancellor to miss a UN climate summit. And smaller demonstrations do not necessarily mean young Germans care less about climate change. But the contrast is striking: while the climate movement struggles to mobilize, dissatisfaction among younger voters extends well beyond environmental policy.
A recent nationwide poll found that 82% of Germans believe politicians do not adequately represent young people’s interestsImage: Sven Kaeuler/dpa/picture alliance