Never before has European public opinion been so aware of the importance of the decisions made in the community institutions, nor have they been as interested as now in participating in the next elections to the European Parliament, scheduled for exactly one year from now.
These are the main conclusions of the Eurobarometer published yesterday by the European Parliament, which, in light of the latest indicators, is confident of coming out unscathed from the effect of the bribery scandal known as Qatargate (no impact on the popularity of the institution can be seen) and registering in in 2024 the highest participation figure since the first direct elections of this type were held in 1979. Thus, seven out of ten European citizens (71%) believe that the decisions of the European Union (EU) have an impact on their daily lives, a higher percentage than five years ago and in Spain it stands at 64%.
In addition, and although only half of the citizens consulted know when the next Parliamentary elections will be (the date has just been set and they will take place between June 6 and 9, 2024), 67% of those surveyed say they would vote if the elections will be held next week (65% in Spain). Although this data is not a guarantee that they will go to the polls, there is a certain correlation and last year, despite the fact that the level of interest was nine points below the current one, the record figure of 51% average participation was reached Hence, it is expected that a new record will be broken in 2024.
These data are “probably the logical consequence of the increase in visibility that the EU has had during this legislature,” said Jaume Duch, Director General for Communication and spokesman for the European Parliament, during the presentation of the survey, alluding to Brexit, the management of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. “If that impact is positive or negative, it is up to the citizen to decide, as in all elections.”
The Eurobarometer does not measure citizens’ intention to vote in political terms, but the projections of different media based on national polls point to an increase in the vote for conservative and extreme right-wing parties, but it remains to be seen to what extent this rise allows us to seek a majority in the European Parliament alternative to the historic alliance between popular and socialists, to which in recent years, as a result of the strong fragmentation of the European parliamentary arc, the liberals and, occasionally, the greens have joined.
The European poll does give clues as to how they see key policies, this time, for example, the EU’s support for Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression. 76% of those surveyed support this policy (“The word fatigue does not appear in the surveyâ€, highlighted Duch), with percentages well above the European average in the Netherlands (90%), Sweden (87%), Finland (87%) and Ireland (87%) and Spain (83%); the lowest are recorded in Slovakia (45%) and Greece (48%). Europeans also positively value the performance of the EU in the defense of democratic rights and the rule of law (64%).
The high percentage of support is significant given that around half of Europeans say their standard of living has fallen in recent months and a further 29% believe it will get worse next year. Spain is one of the countries where citizens have most noticed the deterioration of the economic situation in their pocket: 66% affirm that the situation has gotten worse and 24% think that it will worsen next year.
Europeans are, in general, very critical of the measures taken both at the national and European level to respond to the rise in inflation. Spain shows one of the lowest approval percentages: only 22% of those surveyed in this survey, which was carried out between March 2 and 26, declared themselves satisfied with the measures taken by the Government, and 25 % compared to those adopted by the EU. In the same sense, while 47% of Europeans believe that things are not going in the right direction, in the case of Spain the percentage rises to 54%. All in all, the opinion of Europeans regarding their country’s membership of the EU has improved. 61% think that it is positive, 27% think that it is neither good nor bad and only 11% believe that it is negative for their country, figures that are significantly better than five years ago, when London’s decision to leave the club community led to similar debates in other member states.
