2019
Towards the future of Europe
Brando Benifei
Member of the European Parliament , former President of the Spinelli Group
Domènec Ruiz Devesa
Member of the European Parliament , President of the Union of European Federalists , Vice-President of the European Movement International
Between 23 and 26 May 2019 , European citizens voted in the ninth European Parliament elections , 40 years after the first European elections by direct suffrage in June 1979 . The world had clearly changed in the interim . The number of countries called to vote had tripled : 28 compared to the nine of the first elections ( i . e . the six founding countries , plus Denmark , Ireland and the United Kingdom ), and common rules , including proportional representation and minimum thresholds , were now in place to smooth out some of the differences between electoral systems . However , profound differences in national electoral systems remained , and these had a significant impact on the election campaign and the selection and election of candidates , with several countries using a system of blocked lists , while others used preferential voting .
The European elections of May 2019 took place in a challenging context , notably because the 2016 Brexit referendum had caused
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