Young people at the polls: the student Nicola Brunner in a report by NZZ

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Institutional Communication Service

17 October 2019

280,000 young people in Switzerland supposedly took part in the polls on Sunday, 20 October to vote for the first time for the members of the Swiss parliament. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung focused on young voters, gathering voices from various regions of Switzerland in an article written by a number of authors. These include Nicola Brunner, a student at USI Faculty of Informatics.

Climate change, migration, social security: the young people interviewed by the NZZ talked about many topics in the article “Welt brennt, ihr pennt! Was bewegt junge Schweizer, die zum ersten Mal wählen? Eine Reportage an sieben Orten“. 

The 21-year-old Nicola from Ticino is described as an exception because of his strong connection with the territory south of the Alps: in fact, NZZ mentions the figures of the Federal Youth Surveys, which bring to 85% the students from Ticino who choose to attend a university outside their own canton. For Nicola, choosing USI was an opportunity to have access to an education that equals in quality the one of the other courses offered in Switzerland, with the advantage of studying in small classes and staying in contact with the local community. This decision also allowed him to carry out his work as a video journalist for RSI alongside his studies. 

Regarding the figures for 2015 on the participation of young people from Ticino, NZZ reports that 56% of 18-19 year olds participate in cantonal votes and only a third in federal votes. As Nicola explains, the impression is that he can make his voice heard more on a cantonal level, but he feels less heard by the federal Bern.

The full article is available here.