Spooked by the far right's success in reaching youth voters via TikTok, Germany's political heavyweights are trying to muscle their way onto the social media platform ahead of June's European elections.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, hardly famous for his sparky social media presence, made his unexpected debut on the platform in April, promising he won't be caught dancing.

And vice-chancellor Robert Habeck followed soon afterward, despite having previously quit Twitter and Facebook after his comments online sparked social media storms.

The timing of the German leaders' moves to join TikTok appeared to fly in the face of growing concerns in the West over the video-sharing network.

Launched in 2016 by Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok has been threatened with a ban in the United States over concerns about espionage, while the EU is investigating whether its spinoff Lite app poses a risk to young users' mental health.

But the network's reach among young people has even led US President Joe Biden to tap it for his election campaign.

In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been by far the most successful political party on TikTok, originally known for its dance videos and challenges.

Ulrich Siegmund, a member of parliament for the AfD in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt state, said his party's engagement on the network has helped "many, many people to open their eyes".

We get influenced

"TikTok gives me the chance to freely communicate our ideas... but also proven facts, and get them into the homes of our country," Siegmund, who has been crowned the party's "poster boy" on TikTok by German media, told AFP.

The 34-year-old has often used TikTok to protest against taxpayers' money being spent on foreigners, especially Ukrainians.

Maximilian Krah, the German far-right MEP caught up in a recent scandal over his alleged links with China and Russia, is also a prominent figure on the network.

Surveys suggest the party's TikTok drive has coincided with a boom in its popularity among young people.

According to a major poll published in April, the AfD is now the favourite party among young people aged 14 to 29, with a projected 22 percent of the vote -- double its score just a year ago.

Founded in 2013, the AfD was "the first to use the platform systematically and strategically", said political consultant Johannes Hillje, who has written two books on the party's communications strategy.

The AfD has succeeded in speaking "directly to young people, in a personal way, with emotional messages", Hillje told AFP.

"They simply know how to polarise," said Madeleine Groebe, 17, an activist with SOE Gegen Rechts, an association of young people against the far right. 

"We spend a lot of time on social networks and we get influenced," she said.

Cringe risk

Germany has nearly 20 million TikTok users, according to official statistics, with almost 60 percent of internet users aged between 12 and 19 regularly browsing the network. 

Many of them will be able to vote in the EU elections in June, as the voting age has been lowered to 16 in Germany.

Habeck said he was joining TikTok because he wanted to meet young people "where they are".

In France, Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old leader of the far-right National Rally, is already a star on the network -- as is far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with over a million followers. 

Hungary's far-right leader Viktor Orban, 60, has been on TikTok since July 2023, but has struggled to make an impact.

The challenge for newcomers to TikTok will be to find the right tone, preferably without simply copying the far right or leaving themselves open to ridicule.

"The cringe risk is high," said Hillje, and Scholz's first video -- in which he pays tribute to his trusty briefcase -- is hardly very promising.

German politicians are more used to addressing the over-50s, who make up more than half of the electorate.

But they must come to grips with TikTok, Hillje said -- otherwise "the TikTok generation risks becoming the AfD generation".