Expert predicts significantly lower voter turnout in upcoming EU parliamentary elections. The upcoming EU parliamentary elections could face a significant decrease in voter turnout. According to election researcher Kasper Møller Hansen from the University of Copenhagen, it will be difficult to reach the record-high turnout of 66.1 percent achieved in the last election in 2019. Kasper Møller Hansen predicts that turnout this time could end up around 50 percent. He points out that the high turnout in 2019 was driven by a combination of a major climate mobilization and an impending national election, significantly increasing interest in voting. Previous EU parliamentary elections have also benefited from concurrent referendums on important issues such as the patent court and the succession law. This time, however, the EU parliamentary election stands alone without support from concurrent events, which according to Møller Hansen could make it challenging to achieve a high voter turnout. He also notes that the current election campaign lacks themes that can attract voters to the polls in the same way as climate did last time. In addition, there is a lack of policy differences among most parties, which can make it difficult for voters to distinguish between them. “When people cannot see significant differences between the parties, it can seem pointless to vote,” says Kasper Møller Hansen. He adds that the lack of prominent candidates among the contenders could also negatively affect voter turnout. In the past, well-known politicians like Poul Schlüter, Poul Nyrup, and Morten Messerschmidt have been able to garner many votes, but this time the candidate field is relatively unknown. The absence of well-known candidates is also reflected in the campaign posters, where party leaders appear alongside unfamiliar candidates to attract attention. “It shows that the candidates individually have less significance,” says Møller Hansen. This is the tenth EU parliamentary election held in Denmark. The lowest voter turnout was recorded in 1989 with 46.2 percent. Out of the nine previous elections, only three have ended with a voter turnout below 50 percent.

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