Abstract
Why do Green parties perform better in European Parliament (EP) elections than in national parliament elections? Even in countries that use proportionally representative voting systems for both national and EP elections, many Green parties gained more than twice the proportion of EP seats in 2019 compared to the previous national election. Using national and EP election results, European Social Survey data, and Eurobarometer polling from the 2019 EP election, I test competing theories of Green party success. As EP voter issues become more salient and more voters believe that their vote matters to EU policy, I find that the “second-order election” effect is less relevant. Surprisingly, I also find that the Greens are the only small party family that consistently gained more representation in the EP. Different voter priorities and party issue framing, for both environmental and pro-EU issues, boosted the Green vote in the 2019 EP election.
Highlights
The most recent European Parliament (EP) election, in May 2019, saw a dramatic surge in the number of seats won by Green Parties across Europe
The success of European Green parties in the 2019 EP election reflects the increased salience of issues that must be addressed at a transnational level: environmental policy, climate change, and EU governance
Ideologically aligned Green voters voted according to their “sincere” preference rather than engaging in tactical voting for larger mainstream parties as they may have done in previous national elections
Summary
The most recent European Parliament (EP) election, in May 2019, saw a dramatic surge in the number of seats won by Green Parties across Europe. Non-EGP members sit with the Group of the Greens/ European Free Alliance in the EP, I consider that only EGP members are ideologically similar enough to compare on the national and European levels I use data from the five member states with the most significant difference between national and EP representation: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Sweden These cases illustrate the puzzle of Green representation especially well because their Green parties all have over 50% more representation in the EP compared to the lower house of the national legislature. Germany uses a mixed member proportional formula where voters select individual candidates as well as parties to ensure proportionality (A.K., 2013), and Ireland elects representatives using the Single Transferable Vote (Lijphart, 1999)
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