ASSESSMENTS

Europe Faces a Continentwide Vote With National Implications

May 9, 2019 | 10:00 GMT

Members of Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), including new CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (C), launch the allied conservative parties' campaign for the European elections in an event in Muenster on April 27, 2019. European parliamentary elections could determine the fates of a number of national governments on the Continent.

(TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

May 23-26 elections for the European Parliament will help determine the European Union's future policy direction and appointments to key institutions like the European Commission.
In countries like Italy and Germany, the elections will test the popularity and stability of awkward government alliances, potentially resulting in renewed political uncertainty.
The elections will also have political repercussions in countries from Belgium to Romania, as they will coincide with national, regional and municipal elections, as well as referendums.

Europeans will go to the ballot box later this month for a Continental vote that will also have big effects at home. Between May 23 and May 26, all members of the European Union will hold polls to elect lawmakers for the European Parliament. And while the elections will nominally focus on Continental issues, the votes will also have far-reaching domestic political repercussions. In some cases, they could seal the fate of fragile political coalitions. In others, they will coincide with regional and municipal elections, along with referendums. Whatever the case, the elections will alter the political landscape in some of the bloc's movers and shakers....

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