Human Rights & Democracy
Survey: Generation Z in Poland
The Human Rights Hub conducted a survey in five countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Poland and United States of America) among Gen Z to inquire about their perspectives on human rights and democracy. Among the questioned countries was Poland, which assumed the EU P residency on January 1, 2025.
Polish voters brought liberal-conservative Donald Tusk into office and the right-wing PiS party lost grip on power after the 2023 parliamentary elections. In the 2024 EU elections, there was a noticeable tendency of young voters to increasingly vote for right wing parties. With Poland at the helm of the EU from the beginning of 2025, the Hub inquired about the views of Polish youth on human rights and democracy.
Polish youth remains undecided of democracy as the best form of government and is not fully satisfied with their countries’ democratic performance. This enables the incumbent government under the leadership of Donald Tusk to convince the undecided youth of the value of democracy.
The most important human rights to the Polish youth are the right to privacy and the right to property. The results on the question whether human rights are under pressure in their country indicate that they feel there is room for improvement concerning Poland human rights performance. The biggest threats to human rights are oppressive governments and war. These indications are related to the geographic proximity to Russia and the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as the ousting of the right-wing party PiS.
The incumbent government has the opportunity, through the EU presidency and the national presidential elections in 2025 to capture and convince the undecided and unconvinced Gen Z of the value of democracy and respect for human rights.
Download the in-depth analysis of the survey results below
