YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

344 The decline in the number of young people also has important implica- tions in politics since the relative importance of young people as a polit- ical force is diminishing in terms of numerical clout. Nevertheless, the increased activism and political mindset of young people will surely force institutional politics to think about ways of harnessing their trans- formational power, particularly when developmental, forward-oriented, and “easy-to-point-to” topics that have and will have a direct impact on young people are explored. The so-called referendum on “water” from July 2021 served as a blunt reminder that young people – despite numer- ical weakness and apparent alienation from the institutional political arena – are amighty political force that can shake pubic as well as private (corporate) policies. This is a clear reminder that we are dealing with a sleeping giant that does not need a lot to be awoken. The declining number of young people can be an important starting point in conversations about youth migration. If there is a shortage of young people, their emigration abroad tends to be (even) less desirable. In this context, it is worth pointing out that, since the beginning of the millennium, migration from abroad has been growing. Therefore, we could say that migration flows from abroad have somewhat mitigated the trends of declining number of young people in Slovenia. As mentioned above, the number of young people has stabilised since 2020 and no major changes are expected over the next two decades. On the other hand, however, a related demographic trend is continuing, that of an increasing older (65+) population. They already outnumber young people by a significant margin and this trendwill increase by almost 50% by 2050. Such trends have long been a source of debate on intergenera- tional dialogue and cooperation. According to the present study, almost three-quarters (72%) of young people see the increase in the number of older people as a big or very big problem. However, this does not mean that young people see the elderly as amajor obstacle to their ownwell-be- ing. They are much more likely to believe that both the young and the el- derly are disadvantaged, when it comes to their well-being. The implica- tion is that young people, at least as far as social welfare is concerned, have a high potential for intergenerational cooperation. The importance