The 2019 European Parliament elections: politically crucial, but without clear institutional effects

The elections for the European Parliament that will take place on 23-26 May 2019 will most probably disprove the second-order nature of the European elections and invert the steady decline in voter turnout, for the first time since 1979: not only the pace, but also the direction of the future process of European integration is at stake. However, the legal framework governing the electoral and democratic process in the European Union is far from unified and uncertainties and ambiguities are still existing: especially regarding the constitutional convention on the lead candidates, known as Spitzenkandidaten, which still appears far from consolidated and is affected by the ambiguous design of the form of government of the European Union.