The 2009 elections to the European Parliament : Country Reports

Abstract

We open this eBook with five introductory chapters. By analyzing these elections through the lenses of the second-order election thesis, Alexander H. Trechsel argues that they confirm the thesis while, at the same time, representing the first real European elections in terms of their political outcome. Mainly due to the current economic crisis Europe witnesses an electoral convergence at both the national and the European levels of party competition. Wojciech Gagatek looks at the campaign patterns, trying to identify how these elections were fought and what new aspects they brought. Lutz Meyer presents and assesses the effects of the information campaign that the European Parliament commissioned from Scholz and Friends PR Agency, in which he himself plays a key role. Fabian Breuer presents the EU Profiler and the problems that this project faced when analyzing party programmes in more detail. Finally, Wojciech Gagatek introduces the political composition of the newly elected Parliament and speculates on how it can influence the way it works.