The 2019 European elections in Spain: a second round to Generales?

EnglishThe eighth European Parliament (ep) election in Spain was held in a socially and politically turbulent time. The campaign was dominated by national issues, which seems to fit in the second-order election theory. Yet, the electoral behaviour patterns raise some questions about the suitability of this model’s predictions. On the one hand, the electoral turnout had a significant rise, even though lower than in the previous national election; on the other hand, the election was won by the newly elected psoe with no punishment while the pp achieved slightly better results than those of the parliamentary elections. Broadly speaking, one could argue that the 2019 ep elections in Spain were first and foremost a second round of the April legislative election. portuguesAs oitavas eleicoes para o Parlamento Europeu na Espanha decorreram num clima de instabilidade politica e social. O foco nacional dos temas de campanha esta em consonância com o modelo de eleicoes de segunda ordem. Contudo, os padroes do comportamento eleitoral suscitam algumas questoes sobre a adequabilidade das previsoes do modelo. Por um lado, a participacao eleitoral, apesar de mais baixa do que nas eleicoes nacionais, foi das mais elevadas de sempre; por outro, o psoe recem-eleito saiu vencedor, sem qualquer penalizacao, enquanto o pp replicou a pesada derrota das gerais, embora tenha ganho algum folego. Em linhas gerais, as europeias de 2019 na Espanha parecem ter constituido uma segunda volta das eleicoes gerais de abril.