Abstract
A European voter is a person who has their own political, social, and cultural background, while sharing a main goal with other Europeans: preserving democracy and the values and benefits that it entails. With more than 400 million people eligible to vote the result of the European elections has a great impact on European policies and national agendas. The turnout average in 2019 European elections was 50,66%, but for Romania, although it was close to average, 51.20%, it registered a significant step forward. In 2007 the Romanian people voted for the first time for the European Parliament, but only 29,22% out of the over 18 million Romanian electors cast their vote. The trend was similar until last year. What has happened in the last decade in Romania that has driven a twofold increase in turnout? Political turmoil has fueled political participation: higher turnout and protests against governmental actions. Focused on European elections, the study of the Romanian voter profile is based on the results of exit polls conducted in 2014 and 2019 in European elections held in Romania, with insight on social and political changes that have shaped the electoral behaviour of Romanians as citizens of the European Union.
Highlights
Political participation has been one of the most studied issues in political sciences in the past decades
In order to be able to identify as accurately as possible the demographic profile of voters of each party, as well as the dynamic of electoral behavior when it comes to elections for the European Parliament, I have analyzed the databases of exit-polls drawn up by the CURS (Center for Urban and Regional Sociology - CURS) and the Avangarde Socio-Behavioral Studies Group institutes for the 2014 and 2019 elections
The lowest turnout was recorded in European elections in 2009, with 26,59%
Summary
Political participation has been one of the most studied issues in political sciences in the past decades. Rapid transformations of societies and the impact of globalisation have shaped political behaviour. For former communist countries, the major challenge was to reassess societies. The study of political participation in Romania is in progress, but new realities call for further exploration of the subject. A former communist country until December 1989, during the last 30 years, Romania has seen a lengthy transition, and changes have had a significant impact on society. The challenges that the new democratic society has faced have first of all greatly influenced social, as well as political behaviours. Referring to post-communist transition, Romanian sociologist Claudiu Tufiș underlines the specificity of transformations that have occurred, defining them as a "dramatic social change" (2012:33).
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