Nearly 51% of European voters turned out to cast their ballot in the June 2024 elections, announced the European Parliament on Sunday 9 June following the poll, or just 0.5 percentage points more than in 2019 (50.5%).
This is the second consecutive European election to record an increase in voter turnout, after the one in 2019. For 40 years, interest in the European elections had been declining.
In a number of countries participation was down compared with 2019. In Italy, 48% of voters turned out to vote, compared with 54.5% in 2019. The same applied to Spain, where the rate fell to 49.2%.
Others have seen their turnout increase since 2019: in Cyprus, turnout rose to 50.5%, 5% more than in 2019. In Germany, 66% of voters turned out at the polls, and over 58% in Hungary, which set a new record. In France, the turnout was 52.5%, compared with 50.1% in 2019.
Overall participation suffered from major disparities between the various EU countries. In Belgium, where voting is compulsory, turnout was over 80%, although this does not reflect the level of public interest in the ballot.
In contrast, Croatia recorded the lowest turnout for these elections, with only 15% of voters going to the polls. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)