Towards a European ‘demos’ in politicized times? Supranational drivers of voter turnout in the 2019 and 2024 European elections

Following a period of increased politicisation and contestation within the European Union (EU), the most recent European Parliament (EP) elections were accompanied by higher voter turnout. In line with this growing interest in EU-level political participation, scholarly literature illustrates that, despite the second-order nature of European elections still being prevalent, more recent rounds have been indeed more European contests. Accordingly, the politicisation of European integration seems to be showing its consequences at the electoral level. However, the exact mechanisms at play here remain an open empirical question. Does the politicisation of European integration directly increase turnout? Or is the mobilisation effect moderated by how citizens perceive EU politics? Against this backdrop, our main objective is to analyse the complex relationship between the politicisation of European integration and electoral participation in the context of the 2019 and 2024 EP elections. To address this issue, we use data from the 2019 and 2024 Eurobarometer post-electoral survey for the 27 EU member states. Our findings show that politicization does not matter directly for electoral participation but to some extant via citizens’ attitudes towards EU politics. This can be interpreted into the direction of a mobilization effect which means that there is something like a European ‘demos’ in these politicized times for both pro- and anti-EU respondents.