Elections for the European Parliament typically represent a test for the national political parties of the now 27 member states. The results of these consultations make it possible to measure the resistance of political parties as government or opposition forces, the attractiveness of party leaders as well as the effectiveness of their communication campaigns. The same cannot be said for European political parties, whose merits or demerits tend to remain unknown to the majority of citizens. Due to the way the political representation mechanism within the European Union is structured, in fact, the possibility of expressing a retrospective vote with respect to government action is missing.
Curiously, the Eurobarometer, the official instrument of the European Union institutions which has measured the opinions of EU citizens on political and social issues since 1974, has never investigated their knowledge of European political parties.
According to the only official data in this regard, which date back to a public consultation launched by the European Commission in the summer of 2020 (and in truth rather poorly attended: N= 338!), 91% of those interviewed believe it is useful for the European institutions to commit to give greater visibility to the Europarties by explaining their role and 77% believe that the existing links between national and European political parties should be better highlighted. Some recent initiatives to promote knowledge of European political parties and disseminate information on links between national and European parties have not led to the desired results.
The European Parliament’s proposal which provided for the introduction of a pan-European constituency and which would have allowed citizens of the Union to vote, in addition to national candidates, also for a transnational electoral list nominated by a European political party. Furthermore, the rule amending the European electoral law which provides that member states allow “the affixing, on electoral ballots, of the name or logo of the European political party to which it is affiliated has been mostly ignored, and not only in Italy”. the national political party” (EU/Euratom Council Decision 2018/994 of 13 July 2018).
It is enough to consult the 42 marks filed on 22 April at the Ministry of the Interior for the 2024 European Parliament elections to verify that there are only eight lists that indicate their connection with European parties – two of which have also been deregistered by the Authority for European political parties for failure to meet the registration conditions. Yet European political parties exist.
European elections, here are the lists of candidates. The big names, the outsiders and the excluded
by Stefano Baldolini
On an institutional level, they are the result of a long-term process which saw them recognized for the first time in 1992 with the Maastricht Treaty as agents of expression of the political will of the citizens of the Union. Only since 2003 have they been regulated within the regulatory framework of the European Union as parties with their own legal status and a system of public financing deriving from the community budget, and required to register in the appropriate Register of European Political Parties and European Political Foundations .
There are ten Europarties currently registered in the Register and they express a wide spectrum of political positions. The far left is represented by the Party of the European Left, of which Sinistra Italiana and Rifondazione Comunista are members for Italy. Progressive socialist and social democratic forces, including the Democratic Party, are united in the Party of European Socialists. The moderate centre-right is represented by the European People’s Party which includes, among others, Forza Italia, while the liberal tradition is represented by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Europe, which for Italy involves Action and +Europa , and by the European Democratic Party to which Italia Viva belongs. There are two right-wing sovereignist parties: the Party of European Conservatives and Reformists (whose President is Giorgia Meloni) and Identity and Democracy, a party founded by Marine Le Pen to which the main political forces of the European far right belong, in Italy the League. Also present are the European Green Party, the European Christian Political Movement and the European Free Alliance, a party promoting regionalist policies. In concrete terms, these are extra-parliamentary confederations of national parties linked to the parliamentary groups of the European Parliament.
It is also thanks to the link with the political groups in the Parliament that the Europarties exercise an important influence on the decision-making processes within the Parliament. They also carry out coordination functions both with the European Council, through the organization of meetings with representatives of the heads of state or government preliminary to European summits, and with the Council of the European Union and contribute to the negotiation for the selection of key figures at within the European institutions, such as the Presidency of the Commission itself. In this sense we can speak of the Europartites not only as arenas within which national political parties operate, but also as real actors who contribute, albeit informally, to oiling the gears of the institutional machine of the European Union. However, this is a marginal role within the complex decision-making processes of the Union, whose institutional structure does not allow the Europarties to operate, as happens at a national level, as intermediaries between citizens and the executive power. There are those who have questioned how problematic this really is and whether a strengthening of the Europartites’ capacity for action is desirable in the face of the legitimacy crisis affecting political parties throughout Europe and the ongoing populist tendencies. Finally, the question remains to what extent the marginality of the Europartites is an exceptional or symptomatic condition: that is, whether they represent an anomalous context of political organizations of its own kindor rather symptomatic of a growing institutional irrelevance of party organizations.
#Europarties #Italian #electoral #acronyms #recall #symbols
– 2024-05-03 10:20:51
