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Electoral Participation and the European Poll: A Limited Legitimacy

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Europe at the Polls: The European Elections of 1999

Abstract

The poll of July 13, 1999, reproduced what various mass-media, political, and sociologist environment observers had forecasted, without any risk of failure: An important abstention was registered at the European elections. The “Party of the Abstention” preceded all other parties at the European level, both in terms of the national and the supranational discussion. We can even affirm that a weak electoral participation is the common point of this European poll. This election revealed certain common tendencies, but the most visible and important one was, without any doubt, the absence of an electoral mobilization of the European Union citizens.

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Notes

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© 2002 Pascal Perrineau, Gérard Grunberg, and Colette Ysmal

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Delwit, P. (2002). Electoral Participation and the European Poll: A Limited Legitimacy. In: Perrineau, P., Grunberg, G., Ysmal, C. (eds) Europe at the Polls: The European Elections of 1999. Europe in Transition: The NYU European Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-04441-9_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-04441-9_12

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