Aneinander vorbeireden: la politica e la lingua dei giovani in Germania

Electoral turnout figures reveal that in recent years young voters have shown a strong disaffection with politics, which could be explained by the increasing lack of communication between them and the political class. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the causes can be traced back to the language employed by politicians. By examining several linguistic choices made by German politicians to approach young people and addressing the characteristics of young people’s language, the paper will first focus on an interview with Angela Merkel by woman YouTuber Ischtar Isik. To ascertain whether the language used in the interview by this young influencer truly represents her usual way of speaking or is closer to the language of politics, a second document will be analysed, in which Ischtar, this time as interviewee, deals with general topics. Conclusions will be drawn based on the data resulting from the comparison between the two interviews.