Therefore, the EU election risks becoming a class election

– Hello! Are you planning to go and vote in the EU elections?

In the foyer of Södertälje city hall, 14 future election informants walk around and ask each other questions. Now it’s about education, but from May 22 they will put on their orange jackets and go out into the real world. The task is to get the municipal residents to go and vote.

– I feel that I want to make a difference, because unfortunately the statistics indicate that we in Södertälje are the worst at voting, says Shamash Oyal.

He is 21 years old and has already participated as an election informant once before, in the last election in 2022. This time he himself did not know that it was an EU election before he applied for the job as an informant. But now he wants more people to know that they can make their voice heard – and would like to do more than what he is now doing in his work as an election informant.

– I would like to educate about the election in schools so that you learn more there, says Shamash Oyal.

There is just over a month left until the European Parliament elections, and preparations are currently underway within the parties for an intensive election campaign in the last few weeks. But despite the efforts, many Swedes will devote themselves to other things than European politics when the polling stations open on June 9. When it last took place in 2019, only about half of those entitled to vote participated in the EU elections. By comparison, turnout was 84 percent in the 2022 parliamentary election.

– The EU election is not seen as equally important. It is not the same media coverage or the same campaigns from the parties, while the EU can be a bit difficult to understand for many voters, says Richard Öhrvall, researcher in political science at Linköping University.

He describes the EU election as a secondary election compared to the parliamentary election, and this leads to generally lower participation.

– And above all in the groups that have previously participated to a lesser degree. Those who are socioeconomically weaker have lower income and education, says Richard Öhrvall.

Developments in the last decade point to the fact that the EU election may also be about to become a class election. Between 2014 and 2019, the differences in turnout between those with high and low incomes widened. The same applies to those who have high or low education and own or rent their home.

The results from 2019 show that turnout was the highest in Södra Ängby, a prosperous district in Bromma in western Stockholm with mainly villas as a form of housing. There, 82.8 percent of those entitled to vote went to the polls.

On the other end of the scale, there is an electoral district in the district of Ronna in Södertälje. Only 12.8 percent of the district’s eligible voters participated in the last EU election. In Södertälje municipality, turnout was 41 percent – so the informants in Södertälje will work in several places in the municipality, not just in the districts with the lowest turnout

– Voter turnout and knowledge in connection with the EU elections is low for the entire municipality and we have therefore chosen to invest more broadly than in connection with other general elections, says Josefine Schützer, who is the project manager for Södertälje municipality’s electoral promotion project for the EU elections:

– But promoting electoral participation is not only about informing that the election is taking place, participating in democratic elections is also rooted in a sense of participation and representation in society. We can’t do anything about those things in three months.

Ronna is just one example of similar tendencies elsewhere in the country. According to Statistics Finland’s evaluation of the 2019 EU elections, there is a clear connection between voter turnout and the proportion of foreign-born in an electoral district.

– Because we have a very deep segregation in Sweden, there are areas where an overwhelming part of those who live there are born abroad. It is a heterogeneous group that is more difficult to mobilize, says Maria Solevid, docent in political science at the University of Gothenburg.

Lack of language skills, unfamiliarity with democratic processes and weak anchoring in society are some of the reasons she cites why those born abroad do not vote to the same extent as those born domestically. Voter turnout in the 2019 European Parliament elections was almost twice as high among the native-born as among the foreign-born. The difference has increased during the 2000s.

– You may have come here as an adult, but you may never have been allowed to vote in the country where you were born. There are a number of different explanations, but basically it is about the economic and social resources being distributed differently. It is easier to mobilize those who have resources and are more motivated, says Maria Solevid.

At the same time, she thinks that one should not exaggerate the importance of a low voter turnout in the EU elections. Much of EU policy is managed by the government and Riksdag, so the Swedish voters gain influence through their vote in the Riksdag election. In addition, there are many other countries that do not have as high a turnout as Sweden and still consider themselves to be functioning democracies.

– This fall, 50 percent of Americans will go and vote for whether they should have Biden or Trump as president. There are more people who vote in the European Parliament elections than who vote for who will be the president of the United States, says Maria Solevid.

In Södertälje city hall you can the election informants learn basic information about how the EU works, how it affects Swedes’ everyday lives and how to convince those they meet to vote – without influencing their political choices.

– Get them to say that they will vote – then there is a greater chance that they will do so, says the evening’s trainer Josephine Bladh.

Prixila Camacho works on weekdays as a nanny, but during the evenings and weekends in connection with the election, she will go around Södertälje in teams of at least three and talk about EU elections.

– There are many people who do not believe in democracy. We are from different countries – where it doesn’t always work. Many people say that “oh, we shouldn’t vote – why should we do it?” It doesn’t matter anyway”. But it is important to show that democracy works in Sweden.

Read more: Test yourself with the Electoral Compass before the 2024 EU elections