The European Elections in Germany, 26th May 2019

The European elections have lost their significance as a second order election, an aspect which has played a decisive role in electoral behaviour. For the first time since 1979, the European elections can no longer be rated as a second order election. On the one hand, there is a very high interest in the European elections. In addition, federal politics do not have a more important impact on the voting behaviour for the European Parliament. The EU's increased power to solve political problems and a major change of the political agenda in recent weeks explain the election results to a large extent. Due to the current shift of the political agenda, the Union and the SPD had problems mobilising voters, but the reasons behind these problems vary. People's parties are having a harder time than smaller and protest parties. This is particularly true for the Union and the SPD which both recorded historically low election results.