Call for articles for a thematic issue on the June 2024 European elections for Pôle Sud magazine

As part of the renewal of its editorial line, Pôle Sud magazine is launching a call for articles for a thematic issue devoted to the European elections taking place from June 6 to 9. Often regarded as "second-rate" elections, the European elections have long attracted little interest from the main political parties, voters and the media. While many political parties invest little in these elections compared to national elections, there are nevertheless a very large number of competing lists. In France, for example, as in previous European elections, there are more than thirty lists this year. Because of the proportional, single-round voting system and the rules governing the reimbursement of election campaign expenses, these European elections offer many minority political parties and
movements the opportunity to benefit from media visibility. Historically, these elections have also served as a vector of professionalization for certain political parties that do not benefit from a network of parliamentarians.

As far as voters are concerned, there is a steady upward trend in voter abstention throughout Europe at this election, although the last European elections belied this trend. In 2019, in all European Union countries, only one in two voters took part in the ballot. In France, however, the rise in abstention at these elections seems to have been curbed since 2014. While these elections primarily attract the most participative segments of the electorate, we also note that young people are less disinterested in this ballot than in local elections, which could testify to the growing sense of belonging to Europe among a growing number of national citizens.

In media terms, compared to national elections, the campaign dedicated to the European elections is shorter and less intense, particularly in the traditional media. However, the transnational dimension of the ballot and the way in which European elections are organized offer an a priori favorable framework for a dematerialization of the electoral campaign, all the more so as young people, a highly participative segment on digital platforms, show themselves to be rather sensitive to
European issues.

This thematic issue is intended to include 5 to 6 articles, which may, by no means exhaustively, fall into one of the three following categories:

• The study of explanatory variables for participation and electoral choice. To what extent does this election obey explanatory logics similar to those usually identified in national elections (effects of age, level of education, profession, etc.)? Does the analysis of voting in European elections justify the mobilization of a different paradigm? To what extent is there a European dimension to electoral choice?
• Analysis of the media campaign for the European elections. What is the chronological and thematic structure of the media campaign surrounding the European elections? Do these elections reveal any generational effects in terms of online political participation? To what extent are the logics of media communication and online political participation being Europeanized?
• The study of political parties and candidates. How do the various political parties invest these elections? Is there a difference between insider and outsider parties? What logic governs the constitution of candidate lists? To what extent do these European elections reveal the evolution of political power relations and partisan recompositions?

Articles may focus on the French case as well as other national cases, possibly from a comparative perspective. The Pôle Sud editorial board would welcome articles illustrating a diversity of methods and approaches. Articles should be sent before October 30, 2024 to the two editors of this thematic issue, Julien Audemard and David Gouard, and to the journal's secretariat. Articles must conform to the standards of the journal and must not exceed 40,000 characters (including spaces and bibliography).