The elections were held and unfortunately they fulfilled all the promises we had identified. But not just us. Nothing very extraordinary, except that it was made very clear that on 9 June we were not witnessing “a” European election (by which we mean that European citizens elected their MEPs on a European programme) but twenty-seven national elections at EU level (national citizens elected their national representatives on national issues), with little glory in terms of turnout figures. Let’s take a look.<\/p>\n
When not even half of Europeans are interested in the future of their community<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2019, for the first time in 40 years of European parliamentary history, the turnout rate broke the 50% barrier (50.66%). In 2024, the European elections still did not interest more than half of the population. The participation rate stands at 50.97%, showing an increase in Eastern EU countries (some of which, like Romania and Hungary, also held local elections at the same time), while voter turnout waned in Western Europe. Spain saw a steep fall from 60.73% in 2019 to 49.21% in 2024. Germany recorded a slight increase: 64.78% in 2024 compared with 61.38% in 2019. However, these figures should be put into perspective by the decision to lower the voting age to 16 and the holding of elections in 8 L\u00e4nder[1]<\/a>, \t\t