During the recent Democracy Alive festival in Texel, the Netherlands, we had the opportunity to ask some candidates to the European Commission Presidency, MEP's, activists and volunteers about their views on why the EU Elections turnout is traditionally so low.
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Why do so few people bother to vote in European elections?
During the recent Democracy Alive festival in Texel, the Netherlands, we had the opportunity to ask some candidates to the European Commission Presidency, MEP's, activists and volunteers about their views on why the EU Elections turnout is low and falling.
One of the possible answers is the fact that the campaigns take place in the national arena, led by national candidates, who often mix European and domestic issues during rallies and the campaign.
"The national elections is usually much more clear directly, they know what a national parliament can do, what a national Government does... they don't have that with the EU Elections because they see less the impact of it," said Green 'Spitzenkandidat' Bas Eickhout.
Liberal Margrethe Vestager saw things a similar way: "We have now probably 28 elections but they are all national elections about European issues."
For popular MEP Eva Maydell one of the problems is that national politicians often blame the European Politicians for domestic problems.
You can hear theirs and many more views in the video.
The Democracy Alive festival took place in April 2019 on the Dutch island of Texel and was the first attempt to organize a pan-european democracy festival similar to those organized in several Nordic countries in the last decade.