The European Parliament elections: From the second-order national elections to the europeanized second-order contest

Abstract

By analyzing the case of the 2019 European Parliament elections, the article examines the hypothesis about the second-order character of elections to the European Parliament. Moving within the theoretical framework that has been developing since the first direct EP elections in 1979, we critically examine the conditions in which the last electoral cycle took place and we look for the novelties that could have impacted the changing of this prevalent paradigm. Although we find certain changes that contribute to the 'Europeanization' of these elections, we conclude that the most previous hypotheses are still valid confirming that we are still dealing with the secondorder electoral contest. The last European Parliament elections, as well as the subsequent European chief executive election process, brought new circumstances that could even contribute to maintaining the second-order character of the EP elections.

Rad nastoji da ispita tezu o drugorazrednom značaju izbora za Evropski parlament na primeru izbora iz 2019. godine. Oslanjajući se na teorijski okvir za posmatranje izbora za Evropski parlament kao drugorazredne nacionalne izborne arene, koji se razvijao od prvih neposrednih izbora 1979. godine, kritički se preispituju uslovi u kojima se odvijao poslednji izborni ciklus i novine koje su mogle uticati da se ovakva slika o izborima promeni. Autori zaključuju da je do određenih promena došlo, pre svega u pravcu "evropeizovanja" ovih izbora, međutim, da je još uvek validna većina pretpostavki da se radi o drugorazrednom izbornom takmičenju. Prilikom izbora iz 2019, kao i naknadne procedure izbora šefa izvršne vlasti Evropske unije, došlo je do novih okolnosti koje bi čak mogle i doprineti da se drugorazredni karakter izbora za Evropski parlament nastavi.