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Italy has traditionally stood out for both high participation rates and positive attitudes towards the European Union. Over time, however, this picture has shifted. In the 2024 European parliamentary elections, Italy registered a historically high level of abstention, with a majority of eligible voters staying away from the polls. This study situates and explains that outcome in comparative perspective, drawing on longitudinal turnout data and two survey sources. It finds that abstention in Italy was not primarily the product of decisions made on or immediately before election day; circumstantial factors played only a limited role. Instead, non-voting reflects a longer-term pattern of aversion to, and distrust of, politics and politicians. The analysis also indicates that, although Italians are less likely than others to define themselves as lifelong abstainers, they ascribe to European elections many of the negative qualities they associate with national contests, reinforcing a broader trend of gradual disengagement. In addition to widespread feelings of poor representation and low political efficacy, attitudes towards the EU itself play an important part: Italian non-voters hold more negative views of the Union than their counterparts in other EU member states. Yet these abstainers are not markedly less interested in politics, nor do they appear wholly detached from it.
Giacomo Salvarani (Thu,) studied this question.