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.
One of the key criticisms of European Parliament elections is that they suffer from low turnout and therefore lack the capacity to genuinely confer democratic legitimacy on the EU’s legislative process. Duncan McDonnell writes that while a concerted effort was made to present the 2014 European elections as ‘different’ in the run up to the vote, the minimal rise in turnout experienced illustrates that the real threat to European democracy is not Eurosceptic parties, but voter apathy.
“This time it’s different,” promised the European Parliament in an awareness campaign ahead of the May 2014 elections. And, judging by the headlines, it certainly has been different. Many in the media have termed the results a right-wing Eurosceptic “earthquake”, copying the metaphor used by the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, to describe the performance of the Front National (FN).
In some countries, the populist and Eurosceptic radical right have indeed managed to make the ground shake beneath mainstream politicians’ feet. Although the circa 25 per cent gained by the FN wasn’t a surprise to anyone who has read an opinion poll from France recently, it is still striking to see this (former?) pariah party in first place for the first time. Its result represented not only a huge improvement on the 6.3 per cent it received at the 2009 European Parliament (EP) elections, but was also well beyond Marine Le Pen’s very impressive 17.9 per cent in the 2012 presidential election.
Relevant posts:
- Palmer, J. (2014) “After The European Elections – How Will The EU Leadership Respond?“, Social Europe Journal, 27 May.
- McDonnell, D. (2014) “The rise of Euroscepticism across Europe has masked general apathy about the European elections among voters“, LSE EUROPP, 29 April.
- 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.