Only six days away from the 2024 European Parliament elections, and as Greek parties work feverishly to win the vote, Greek voters seem generally uninterested.
Voter abstention may reach a record high in the June 9 election, analysts predict. The issue has fueled debates about which parties might reap electoral benefits in the high abstention scenario and who might lose ground.
As polls show, the percentage of undecided voters is alarmingly large. Previous elections in Greece have shown that high percentages of undecided voters generally correlate with a low turnout at the ballot box.
Overall, in the past 15 years participation in European Parliament elections in Greece ranges between 50 and 60 percent of registered voters. Specifically, in the 2009 European elections, only 52,54 percent of registered Greek voters showed up to the voting booth. In 2014 the percentage was higher (59.33 percent), and in 2019, it dropped slightly to 58.69 percent.
The 2019 European elections coincided with the municipal elections in Greece. At the time, the results of one election would send signals regarding the other election. This is not the case on June 9, so the vote for the European Parliament alone looks less significant to some Greeks.
The reasons voters abstain from European Parliament elections
The main reason the majority of Greek registered voters abstain is that they are disappointed by EU policies – if not downright angry. Like all member states, Greece must implement policies voted on in the European Parliament. However, the country’s voice with only 21 European Parliament representatives in a body of 705 is too weak to count. So, when 75 percent of laws for EU member states are voted on in the European Parliament, some Greeks have exceptionally low expectations as to whether their voices will be heard at the heart of the EU.
More importantly, some Greeks do not feel that they can turn to Europe to help solve their problems. For many it is quite the opposite: They feel that Europe is where most of their major problems stem from: its inability to stop price hikes in the supermarket, the migrant influx due to the EU migrant-friendly attitude in the hope of solving its demographics problem, inadequate steps towards climate change measures, etc.
An ongoing study by the diaNOEsis NGO which started in 2015 and publicized results in April 2024, shows that 52.7 percent of respondents believe that politicians are responsible for the problems Greece is facing. Regarding the same question, big trusts and guilds are responsible for Greece’s problems according to 45.7 percent of respondents.
These responses show that significant numbers of Greeks do not believe that Europe is able to aid Greece in overcoming its problems such as inflation, high rents, high cost of living, and state corruption.
A good chance for the opposition to “hurt” the government
Listening to pre-election speeches from both the governing party and the three major opposition parties, an outsider would think that these elections are national elections and have nothing to do with Europe.
It is given that the European Parliament vote is a message – or rather a warning – to the ruling party that its policies are not favored by the majority. While New Democracy won the 2023 national election with a solid 41 percent of the vote, polls show that it will get an average of 34 percent in Sunday’s vote. It is an expression of disappointment of both, the voters of the party in power and the opposition alike.
So the pre-election bickering speeches have little to do with Greece’s representation in Europe but they are a shouting match for the future national election.
To the ballot box or to the beach?
Whenever elections in Greece are held in the summertime – which is mostly the case – absenteeism is jokingly justified as the need for people to instead take their families to the beach that Sunday.
Abstention from the voting procedure has been the norm for at least the past 20 years. Greeks express their disappointment for politicians by shunning them on European Parliament election day, even on national election day. They believe that this is the best way to protest. One can say that by avoiding voting they are protesting. But others argue that what they avoid in reality is the most important right of a democracy: the right to vote.
Abstention percentages over the past two decades have been around 40 percent. Some attribute it to the mandatory laws of the European Union that every member state has to comply with. Others to the misled policies of the union, or the actions of some corrupt members of the European Parliament.
Even though Greece has been an EU member since 1980, many Greeks still feel they don’t belong to Europe, they don’t feel European, or simply they don’t want to comply with EU legislation. And what better way to express this feeling than going to the beach on European Parliament election day?
Will postal votes boost participation?
As of May 30, more than 110,000 Greek voters have already cast their ballot by mail for the 2024 European Parliament elections. Over 200,000 have registered to vote by mail.
The ballots have already been received by the sorting center in Peristeri. The voters who will vote by mail have been divided into 237 polling stations, which are housed in the exhibition center at Peristeri, the final destination of envelopes with postal votes from all over the world. For security reasons, the premises are guarded by the police and monitored by closed-circuit TV 24 hours a day.
The process continues smoothly and every day thousands of postal vote envelopes arrive from Greek voters from all over the world.
In order for the postal votes to be counted, they must reach their final destination by the eve of the elections, specifically by Saturday, June 8, at 5 pm Greek time.
The deadline for sending the ballot via courier for residents in Greece is Monday, June 3, and Tuesday, June 4 if they choose to drop off the envelope at a courier company store.