Sub-national party representation across EU member states

Across the EU, political parties compete on several different levels: the European Parliament elections, national elections, and regional, local, or broadly - subnational electoral competitions. Oftentimes, the same parties have structures across all levels of competition and run candidates in all types of elections. There are also parties that are viable at only certain regions or electoral districts, and further - not all nationally competitive parties participate in all local or regional elections. This is especially evident in the newer member states of the EU, where there is a multitude of parties (and coalitions) that form only at the local level, and do not participate at national (or European Parliament) elections. Further, it is reasonable to expect that even in unitary states, citizens have preferences for outcomes at the local/subnational level that are different from the priorities of parties at the national government. For example, salient issues in rural regions might not be of interest to urban dwellers, and vice versa. Additionally, issues relevant at the national level, for example – unemployment – might have divergent relevance across sub-national regions and districts. Using newly collected data from a both newer and older EU members states, this paper explores the following: (1) how different are the issues that the same parties prioritize in elections at different geographic levels; and (2) are these issues reflective of the preferences of voters at each level? By doing so, this paper is a first step in assessing the broader question of what happens when the preferences of voters and parties in the subnational units diverge from those expressed in national level politics.