Les nouveaux européens aux urnes
New Europeans at the polls

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the results of the first elections for the European Parliament in an enlarged European Union, an event that the authors consider as a first concrete translation of enlargement itself. Placed in the context of national and European electoral politics, the results are traced and explained for the new mem­ber states, drawing the necessary conclusions about how the distribution of seats in the EP - and the corresponding political statement of the electorate - are like­ly to affect the (feeble and uncertain) domestic balance of the new entrants. While massive abstention and the sanctioning of incumbent parties from the national government level replicate tendencies in the EU-15, the study finds that euro­ scepticism and especially allegiance to right-wing extremist poles should not be of short-term concern for the new member states.

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