GOVCOPP-EUVOTO team in highlight during the 2024 European Parliament Election coverage
The EUVOTO (voting support application) team led by GOVCOPP members was recently in the spotlight covering and analysing the European Parliament elections. Last Thursday (6 June), Pedro Lourenço published an opinion piece for Jornal de Notícias , in which he analysed the data resulting from the use of the application. In it, Lourenço, while emphasising the limitations associated with the sample (which could include multiple responses from the same users), highlights the mismatch between the issues seen as most important to the electorate/users and those that are most prominent in the media. The app's users defined disinformation on social media (23% of participants) and investment in the European railway network (15%) as the most important issues. This contrasts with the media attention received by issues such as immigration and the war in Ukraine, which were mentioned as important by less than 10 per cent of users.
Last Sunday, Pedro Lourenço was also invited by Jornal de Notícias to take part in the live coverage of the European elections (9 June). Additionally, Carlos Jalali took part in the edition of the 10 th of June of the RTP3 program 360 , in which he provided a brief analysis of the electoral results.
In the aftermath of the elections, Pedro Lourenço highlighted the increased participation of the electorate (when compared with the last European elections), as well as the resilience of the mainstream parties (PS and PSD-CDS/AD), which managed to retain a significant portion of the vote in an atypical way in the context of European elections that tend to favour a more ideological or punishment vote. However, in this regard, Carlos Jalali pointed to a long-term dynamic, which has shown a persistent reduction in the percentage of votes won by the governing parties.
Also emphasised by both GOVCOPP researchers was the electoral decline of the radical right-wing party Chega, when compared to previous legislative elections. This, as Carlos Jalali suggests, seems to be due to Chega's lack of capacity to create cadres who can successfully run as alternatives to André Ventura.
The loss of electoral support of the left-wing parties (BE and CDU) also merited the attention of Lourenço and Jalali, with both emphasising these parties' difficulty in making the most of their first experience as part of a governing solution and , as Jalali pointed, their inability to rejuvenate their electorate.
Finally, Lourenço argued that the EU-wide electoral results favour the continuation of the alliance between the three more centrist European party groups (Socialist & Democrats - S&D, European People's Party Group - EPP, and Renew Europe - RN) that support the current President of the European Commision Ursula von der Leyen (EPP). This may ultimately give von der Leyen a new mandate without the need to negotiate with radical right party groups.
Mentioned GOVCOPP members
