The 2009 Elections to the European Parliament Country Reports Edited by Wojciech Gagatek Foreword by Yves Mény European University Institute Florence, Italy © European University Institute 2010 Editorial matter and selection © Wojciech Gagatek Chapters © authors individually This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the year and the publisher. ISBN 978-92-9084-051-0 doi:10.2870/13513 Published by the European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European Union Democracy Observatory - EUDO Via dei Roccettini, 9 I-50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) – Italy E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.eudo.eu www.eui.eu First edition: April 2010 Views expressed in this publication reflect the opinion of individual authors and not those of the European University Institute. Cover photo © European Union, 2010 IV THE 2009 EP ELECTIONS TABLE OF CON T EN T S Foreword Yves Mény, President of the European University Institute 2002-2009 . IX Preface: Bringing the European Parliament election results closer to the citizens Wojciech Gagatek, Alexander H . Trechsel and Fabian Breuer . XI SE ct ION I IN T RODU ct IO N 1 How much ‘second-order’ were the European Parliament elections 2009? Alexander H . Trechsel . 3. 2 Campaigning in the European Parliament elections Wojciech Gagatek . 1. 3 3 The biggest marketing campaign in the history of the EU Lutz Meyer . 2. 1 4 The EU Profiler: A new way for voters to meet parties and to understand European elections Fabian Breuer . 2. 7 5 The political composition of the new European Parliament Wojciech Gagatek . 3. 3 SE ct ION II COUN T RY REPOR T S 6 Austria Theresa Kuhn, Fabio Wolkenstein, Flooh Perlot and Sarah Meyer . 4. 1 7 Belgium Kaat Smets, Kris Van Berendoncks and Steven Van Hecke . 4. 7 8 Bulgaria Milen Lyubenov . 5. 3 9 Cyprus Christophoros Christophorou . 5. 9 10 Czech Republic Anna Kárníková . 6. 5 11 Denmark Malthe Munkøe . 7. 1 12 Finland Sari Rannanpää . 7. 7 IV Table of Contents, The 2009 Elections to the European Parliament – Country Reports, Wojciech Gagatek (ed.), Firenze, European University Institute, 2010, pp. V-VI © European University Institute, editor and contributors 13 France Mathieu Petithomme . 8. 3 14 Germany Sandra Brunsbach, Stefanie John and Annika Werner . 8. 9 15 Greece Sofia Vasilopoulou . 9. 5 16 Hungary Agnes Batory . .101 17 Ireland Conor Little, Maria Laura Sudulich and Matthew Wall . 107 18 Italy Edoardo Bressanelli, Andrea Calderaro, Daniela Piccio and Furio Stamati . .113 19 Lithuania Renata Mieńkowska-Norkiene and Egle Kavoliunaite . .119 20 Luxembourg Patrick Dumont and Astrid Spreitzer . 125 21 The Netherlands Carolien van Ham and Kaat Smets . .131 22 Poland Wojciech Gagatek, Katarzyna Grzybowska-Walecka and Patrycja Rozbicka . .137 23 Portugal José Santana Pereira . .143 24 Romania Arpad Todor . .149 25 Slovakia Karen Henderson . 155 26 Slovenia Grega Gostencnik . 161 27 Spain Fernando Casal Bértoa, Mónica Ferrín and Sergi Pardos-Prado . 165 28 Sweden Jibecke Joensson . .171 29 United Kingdom Elisabeth Carter, Gemma Loomes and Thomas Carl Lundberg . 177 VI THE 2009 EP ELECTIONS LIS T OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1-1 Regional differences in turnout (national levels of turnout averaged by region) . 5 Table 1-2 National Government Parties Lose (Difference in Percent of Votes Cast for Governing Parties: European Elections 2009 and Last Preceding National Elections) . 8 Table 1-3 Winners and losers across the left-right dimension in the EP 2009 elections . .10 Table 6-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Austria . 45 Table 7-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Belgium . .51 Table 8-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Bulgaria . .56 Table 9-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Cyprus . 62 Table 10-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Czech Republic . 69 Table 11-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Denmark . 75 Table 12-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Finland . 81 Table 13-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – France . .86 Table 14-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Germany . 93 Table 15-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Greece . .98 Table 16-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Hungary . 104. Table 17-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Ireland . 111. Table 18-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Italy . 117. Table 19-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Lithuania . 123. Table 20-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Luxembourg . 129. Table 21-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Netherlands . 135. Table 22-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Poland . 141. Table 23-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Portugal . 147. Table 24-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Romania . 153. Table 25-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Slovakia . 159. Table 26-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Slovenia . 164. Table 27-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Spain . 169. Table 28-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – Sweden . 175. Table 29-1 Results of the 2009 European Parliament elections – United Kingdom . 181. VI List of Tables and Figures, The 2009 Elections to the European Parliament – Country Reports, Wojciech Gagatek (ed.), Firenze, European University Institute, 2010, pp. VII-VIII © European University Institute, editor and contributors FIGURES Figure 1-1 Turnout in EP elections 1979-2009 . 4 Figure 1-2 Turnout in the 2009 EP elections by country . 5 Figure 1-3 Turnout in the most recent two EP elections by country . 6 Figure 1-4 Leading parties of government in the European Union (June 2009) . 9 Figure 1-5 Gains and losses of leading parties of government in the 2009 EP elections . 10 Figure 4-1 An example of an EU Profiler statement - Welfare, family and health . .28 Figure 4-2 An example of an EU Profiler ‘political landscape’ (Denmark) . .29 Figure 5-1 Political Composition of the European Parliament after the 2009 elections . 34 Figure 5-2 The percentage of seats controlled by EP political groups in the previous and current legislature . .35 VIII THE 2009 EP ELECTIONS FOREWORD Yves Mény, President of the European University Institute 2002-2009 The European University Institute (EUI) was set up in 1972 by the six founding Member States of the European Communities to provide advanced academic training to doctoral researchers and to promote research at the highest level. It opened its doors to its first researchers in 1976. This event preceded the first direct elections to the European Parliament of 1979 by only three years. Although politicians and the leading European elite welcomed these elections with great hope, the electorate did not attach much importance to them, and soon afterwards political scientists began to refer to them as second-order elections. Today, the EUI is a world-class postgraduate and postdoctoral research institute for Economics, History, Law, and Political and Social Sciences. Comparative Europe-focused research has always been at the forefront of our activities. Prior to the 2009 elections to the European Parliament, we successfully embarked on two large research projects. First, the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO), a new and blossoming research centre based at the Institute, launched the unique innovative voting aid application EU Profiler. More than 2.5 million European citizens visited this website in search of information about the programme profiles of the political parties competing in the 2009 elections. Secondly, the EUI is hosting the large interdisciplinary research project PIREDEU (Providing an Infrastructure for Research on Electoral Democracy in the European Union). This project is perhaps the largest and most comprehensive analysis of the European Parliamentary elections to date, and its preliminary results will become available in the course of the year 2010. However, we wish to go beyond that. One of our objectives for the future will be to communicate more often with the world of practice, and hopefully, also with ordinary citizens. The EUI has the ambition of playing an important role in building civil society and in bringing the EU closer to its citizens. Based on this premise, a group of young scholars both from the EUI and from all over the EU has engaged in preparing this publication devoted to the 2009 elections to the European Parliament. The publication is innovative in several regards. First of all, I am very pleased that 5 introductory chapters and 24 standardized country reports contained in this eBook were written by young members of our academic community. Throughout my presidency of the EUI, I have always tried to create conditions for young academics to develop and flourish, and I am very happy that we created an opportunity for them to be engaged in a comparative research project of this kind. It must be emphasized that the initiative to prepare the publication came from these young academics, who correctly identified a gap in the availability to those interested of reliable well-researched academic analysis of this election. From the very beginning, our idea was to put the entire eBook on-line and to provide unlimited access to it. We therefore hope that it will become a useful source of reference for academia, the media and the wider public. In the next few years, European politicians will need to thoroughly rethink how to bridge the gap between the EU and ordinary citizens and how to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the Union.