Still second-order? Can the European Parliament elections still be classified as second-order elections?

Abstract

Since 2019, the largest national parties in the European Parliament (EP) are Eurosceptic parties. This is one of the developments that has led scholars to question, whether European Parliament elections are still of second-order character or are now determined by European issues. This paper uses data from the ParlGov database and a variety of quantitative methods to show that the 2019 EP elections are still second-order national elections. A change from national to transnational lists might inspire a change in voter behaviour.