The 2024 European Parliament Elections in Spain: National and European Dimensions

Abstract

The article examines the 2024 European Parliament elections in Spain as an element of national and European political pro-cess. The purpose of the study is to reveal key factors that in-fluenced voting outcome in Spain, as well as its possible im-plications for national political development and country’s role in the European Union. The research is based on the of-ficial data on the election results in Spain and the European Union, Spanish national statistics, Russian and Spanish think tanks’ and news agencies’ publications. The factors that shaped the campaign course and election results include spe-cific features of Spain's administrative territorial structure; na-tional rules for the European Parliament elections; character-istics of the Spanish party system and national political pro-cess dynamics. The voting results were also influenced by the growing political appeal of national-conservative ideas and candidates’ reliance on unconventional methods of campaign-ing. The political and ideological balance among Spanish members of the newly-elected European Parliament reflects stronger presence of the right-wing, including far-right politi-cal forces, which is in line with general European trends. However, the traditional political competitors, the center-left Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and the center-right People’s Party, which consistently take a pro-European stance, have retained their leading positions. This draws a conclusion about the probable continuity of Spain's course in the new European legislature and its further pursuit of greater integration.

Keywords

• spain
• european union
• european parliament
• elections
• party competition
• psoe
• pp