WITHIN FRANCE, HOW BIG A GAP WITH OTHER ELECTIONS?

1. Participation in European Parliament Elections: The French Experience Dr Anne Jadot (Université Nancy 2 / IRENEE) & Dr Bruno CAUTRES (CEVIPOF) anne.jadot@univ-nancy2.fr / bruno.cautres@sciences-po.fr FP6 CivicActive ANOTHER FRENCH PARADOX • BACKGROUND / CONTEXT • A theoretically positive context for EP elections... • A deepening EU integration. • A growing role for the EP. • Highly salient issues: e.g. enlargement, constitution project. • ...The empirically negative response from the electorate • = declining turnout (%) A low turnout because of negative attitudes towards EU? Not so simple Fair enough, the “permissive consensus” is over. Yet EU support is still sound in France (%) positive opinions DK Disagree: EU citizens living in France not entitled to social claims 64 2 Agree: other EU citizens living in France entitled to vote in all local elections 58 1 France EU membership = a good thing 53 1 Disagree : French should come first against other EU citizens for jobs 46 1 Democracy in Europe: fair work 47 2.5 Trust EU decisions to benefit France’s interests 47 1 Trust EU decision to benefit laymen interests 40 1 Often consider oneself as a European citizen 30 0.5 Very proud to be a European citizen 14 2 + At the individual level, pro-European citizens do turn out more, but the difference with Euro-sceptics is not as striking as would be expected  lots of Euro-supporters don’t vote either in EP elections! Is the EP participation elitist? There is a sociological divide more pronounced than at the 2002 Presidential election 1st round (see below). Yet even some high profile categories display a high propensity to abstain in EP elections. There’s a massive impact of age, leading to a “generation gap” = older people vote out of habit and/or because they feel it is their civic duty, not because they’re more interested in EU / EP. Profile of non-voters in 2002 and 2004 2002 Presidential (1st round) 2004 EP Evolution Overall 27 57 +30 Gender Male 26 56 +30 Female 29 58 +29 Age 18-24 30 62 +32 25-34 30 71 +41 35-49 26 65 +39 50-64 24 50 +26 65+ 28 31 +3 Education None 27 68 +41 Primary 15 48 +33 Secondary 19 60 +41 French baccalauréat 21 60 +39 Higher education 20 52 +32 Occupation status Independent, entrepreneur 19 52 +33 Salaried (private sector) 20 62 +42 Salaried (public company) 21 55 +34 Salaried (civil servant 17 45 +28 or local authorities) WITHIN FRANCE, HOW BIG A GAP WITH OTHER ELECTIONS? • CONCLUSIONS: political interpretation • a very low stimulus election • only 1 registered voter in 4 interested in the EP campaign (- 20 points compared to the 2004 regional elections) • even those interested in politics and who have done some campaigns activities are not that interested! • (2)a “secondary election” rather than a “second order” one • the government was highly unpopular but the previous regional elections had enabled the use of the ballot to send a (nationally oriented) message. • not turning out is itself a message • (3) Low salience of the EP / relevance for the representation linkage • awareness and trust of the EP discriminate well between voters and non voters. • two few voters think the EP is a relevant channel for their European views •  EU institutions, political parties and the media share a responsibility to trigger an active and mobilising campaign for 2009 YET EUROPEAN ISSUES CAN MOBILISE FRENCH VOTERS! Turnout = 69,7% for the 1992 Maastricht Treaty referendum = 69,4% for the 2005 Constitution Treaty referendum  THE PUZZLE Given this potential to mobilize over European themes, why did the 2004 EP elections turned down 57% of the French electorate? THE DATA = the 2004 European Election Study in France 1,406 respondents, registered to vote; quotas based sample, phone survey, 14th-19th June + In-depth dozens of interviews (in the 1990’s) for a PhD on perceptions of types of elections