Mudde, C. (2014) “The European Parliament elections show the increasingly fragmented nature of European party systems“, LSE EUROPP, 12 June.
Most coverage of the European Parliament elections has noted the rise of several far-right and Eurosceptic parties across Europe. Cas Mudde argues, however, that a more important trend was toward increasingly fragmented party systems. Presenting a series of numbers from the elections, he illustrates that ‘big parties’ are experiencing declining vote shares, with a greater number of smaller parties now competing for power in many EU countries.
The 2014 European elections have led to a surprising amount of media attention and speculation. The dominant frame, which had been decided upon well before the actual results came in, is that “the far right” or “Euroscepticism” has won the elections. In fact, we are told that there has been an “earthquake” that has led to “concerns in Europe”. The new European Parliament will “struggle to find majorities”, divided as it is between a Pro-EU and an anti-EU camp.
But behind this simplistic and sensationalist narrative lays a deeply fragmented reality of a European Parliament with over 100 national parties. In many ways, this reflects an ongoing trend of fractionalisation in national party systems, in which big parties are shrinking, or even disappearing, the number of represented parties is growing, and turnout is (on average) dwindling.
Relevant posts:
- Mc Donnell, D. (2014) “The minimal rise in turnout in the EP elections shows that voter apathy is still the greatest threat to European democracy“, LSE EUROPP, 31 May.
- Haughton, Τ. & Novotna, T. (2014) “The European elections in Central and Eastern EU states illustrate that the rise of Euroscepticism was far from uniform across Europe“, LSE EUROPP Blog, 29 May.
- Zikos, A. (2013) “Party Euroscepticism in Greece during the Financial Crisis, the Cases of SYRIZA and Chrysi Avgi“, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, June.