Green and Young? Improving Voter Turnout in the 2019 European Elections

Discussions of electoral turnouts have often focused on the lower rates of participation among young voters. In preparation for the 2019 European elections, the European Parliament engaged in campaigns to convince young voters of the need to participate in European democracy. The dominance of older voters in turnouts across Europe had previously favored certain policies, becoming a source of concern for the interests of younger citizens. At the same time, self-reported turnouts have demonstrated that the official engagement to get younger Europeans to vote in May 2019 has delivered promising results. The age group 18-24 has seen a 14% increased voting turnout at the European elections, still remaining the lowest turnout among all age groups. This was the largest increase in voting turnout among all age groups in Europe and it can bring a significant demographic change to elections and future policies. It remains critical to understand what really motivated so many more young citizens to go to the polls in the last European elections, and whether this surge in young turnout will continue at the next EP elections in 2024. The last European Elections recorded both higher voter turnouts and a parallel increase in support for Green parties at the European Parliament. These two results may be linked, considering the support for strong environmental policies by younger people, evidenced by the Greta Thunberg youth movement worldwide. Young people have expressed a high level of concern about the negative impact of climate change and a strong commitment to political action to fight global warming. This paper studies the connection between the relevance of environmental issues and voting for younger generations. The findings reveal that green priorities contributed to increase voting probabilities among all Europeans, more so for the youngest voters, when compared to older generations. Concerns about the environment had the power to help with the reversal of the long-term turnout decline in European elections and to support EU actions against climate change threats. Climate anxiety has the potential to reduce the voter turnout gap between generations, within countries as well as across Europe. The amplification of environmental anxiety among young people in Europe acts as an echo chamber that strengthens the likelihood of voting. This interpretation allows for the testing of the “global generations” theory that posits the development of cross-national generations. With the EU actively involved in voting campaigns across Europe, the European youth may be more similar now than in the past, and especially in comparison to older generations. Do environmental concerns matter more for younger voters? Can global issues such as climate change be responsible for a more homogenous younger generation and their increased political involvement? This project will use data from the Eurobarometer 91.5 in multilevel logistic regression models to test the relevance of age, cohorts, environmental positions in the calculation of voting probabilities of younger and older Europeans. The findings from such type of research have important consequences on the future of democratic involvement in EU governance and policies for different generations.