“Citizens, political parties and the media see the European election as less important than other electoral contests,” said Kelbel. “There is … less at stake, so less of a reason to go to the polls.”
Kelbel added that when citizens do mobilize, they often do so on national, rather than European, issues. She explained that voters may go to the polls to “send a signal to their national government” — or the ruling party might use the vote to prove its popularity.
The EU voter crowd isn’t the most diverse, either.
Kelbel noted that “younger, more socially deprived, and less educated people vote less.” She underlined that this is true for all elections but especially those for the European Parliament, as these groups, who “may already feel ‘out of the game’ due to their perceived lack of competence in national elections, are likely to be all the more so” in this case.
“Many perceive the EU as too distant and too complicated,” she said.
Schulmeister, the European Parliament campaigns director, argued the success of 2019 proved that the Parliament — and EU politics more broadly — was starting to become more relevant in citizens’ eyes.
