ABSTRACT
After decades of declining turnout and pro-integrationist consensus politics, the 2019 EP elections in Germany marked a historical turning point. Turnout levels increased considerably as highly salient European issues – in particular, migration and climate change – dominated the campaign agenda. The election sharpened voters’ perceptions of the contrasting positions of the parties that most strongly campaigned on European issues: the populist radical right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Greens. While the thrust of their programmes could hardly be more different, with the AfD campaigning on a Eurosceptic platform and the Greens pursuing a decisively pro-integrationist agenda, both parties mobilized with clear and specific messages about what should be done at the European level. In the end, these parties were rewarded at the ballot box while the two governing parties, CDU/CSU and SPD, were punished for their uninspiring campaigns. Although the aggregate election outcome might seem in line with the expectations of second-order theory, the decisive role played by EU issues in bringing about this outcome suggests that the 2019 election in Germany has been one of the least second-order ones in history so far.
