Fourty years of European Elections: : What we still miss about EU politics

In the month of June 1979, for the first time in history, citizens from nine different countries elected 410 MEPs (Member of the European Parliament) who had the role to represent European citizens as a whole. The turnout was around 62%, a result destined to remain the highest ever. The communist group took 44 seats, socialists won with 113seats, and there were no populist or far right parties. The EU was not even born, and many believes that a European party system was just at the beginning of a big development. Lot of things have changed from 1979. But not so much as it could be expected for the European elections. The questions we need to reflect on are why European elections did not become the most important political appointment for half a billion people and for the European union itself and, in addition, what we should expect from the election of the IX legislature this May.

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Category: European elections