European elections: Results, messages and lessons

Abstract

In theoretical analysis and political debates about the "destiny of the EU experiment" there is a sort of general stance or political mantra about the democratic deficit of the EU institutions including the European Parliament, which is considered just a surrogate of a parliament with few competencies. Consequently, the elections for the EP were treated, for decades now, as SEC-ond class "test" elections for the national elections which are considered as the only relevant. in the paper we advocate that parallel processes of widen-ing the competencies of the EP and re-politicization as well as re-ideologiza-tion of political agenda that includes key issues of technological and climate change, economic crisis and deep inequalities as well as national (migrant) identities -the issues too wide for national political arena, even according to Europhobes -caused emergence of specific and significant European po-litical space. all this, combined with the raising of the right-wing populism and open question about the destiny of European political architecture after Brexit, led to the increased interest of voters for the European elections.

U teorijskim analizama i političkim raspravama o "sudbini EU eksperimenta" neka vrsta opšteg mesta ili političke mantre je stav o demokratskom deficitu EU institucija, uključiv i Evropski parlament za koji je važila ocena da se radi tek o surogatu parlamenta sa tek prigodnim ovlašćenjima. Posledično, izbori za EP su decenijama tretirani kao drugorazredni "test" izbori za jedino relevantne, nacionalne izbore. U ovom radu zagovaramo tezu da su paralelni procesi širenja ovlašćenja EP i repolitizacije čak i reideologizacije političke agende na kojoj su se našla ključna pitanja tehnoloških i klimatskih promena, ekonomske i duboke krize nejednakosti i nacionalnih (i migrantskih) identiteta, za koja su i po evrofobima nacionalne političke arene preuzak okvir, uslovile nastanak specifičnog i važnog evropskog političkog prostora. Uz konjunkturne faktore, poput rasta desnog populizma i otvorenog pitanja preispitivanja same sudbine evropske političke arhitekture nakon Bregzita, sve je to za posledicu imalo i obnovu interesa birača za evropske izbore.