Prvovoliči a voľby do Európskeho parlamentu
First Voters and the Election to the European Parliament

Summary/Abstract: Slovak Republic achieved the lowest voters turnout in the European Parliament elections both in 2004 (16,9%) and in 2009 (19,6%). The evaluation of the voters mobilization has been done by experts who claimed that the only difference between the pre-election campaigns in 2004 and 2009 were mobilization projects focused on students. These projects were financially supported by the European Parliament and the European Commission. One of them was the project of Department of Political Science, University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava SEP. During 6 months this project developed activities focused on broadening the students knowledge about the European Union and the European Parliament. Slight increase of the turnout that was recorded in 2009 by 2,7% to 19,6% can be assigned to first-time voters aged 20-23. The results of the sociological analysis of turnout in the European Parliament elections challenge the statement that the turnout of older citizens was higher than the turnout of young people. Specific segments of the young generation have completely different voting behaviour. Especially university students identify their future with work in the EU. Therefore the university students turnout was the highest in the EU (52%) from all structured groups in the 2009 European Parliament elections.

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