elections

How did political parties address today’s complex challenges in their European Parliament election programmes and electoral campaigns – and how do they differ in doing so? Which topics dominated the debates? How did the results affect the balance of power in the European Parliament and other EU institutions? What will the policy implications be? This report answers these questions by focusing on a number of key member states in a comparative perspective and – in the wake of the surge of the far right and anti-transformation tendencies – discusses strategies to increase the importance of the EU elections and strengthen the democratic, unifying and forward-facing foundation of the EU itself.