The government is taking steps with Brussels not to schedule the European elections on June 9, 2024 due to the approaching holidays, and will ensure that if this is not possible it will try to soften the abstention.
“At the moment we are still at the stage of promoting zeal in Brussels, with the European institutions, especially within the Council of the European Union, which therefore decides to seek a date together with the other Member States. This is what is happening is at stake, this is plan ‘A’,” Secretary of State for European Affairs Tiago Antunes said in statements to Parliament.
The official was speaking after meeting the parties this Thursday and Friday with Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ana Catarina Mendes to discuss the date of the 2024 European elections.
Tiago Antunes explained that “the law on elections to the European Parliament stipulates that the elections will be held on the same weekend as the first elections in 1979, which in 2024 corresponds to the period between 6 and 9 June”, and in the Portuguese case it would be the 9th, the eve of a national holiday, since in Portugal elections are always held on a Sunday.
June 10 is a national holiday, marking the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities, and June 13 is also a public holiday in Lisbon.
“Obviously this is a very inconvenient date as it is the eve of a public holiday and is therefore in the middle of a long weekend, which is why the Portuguese government has promoted a series of moves to try and change this date.”, he mention.
However, Tiago Antunes emphasized that such a change “does not seem easy, as unanimity from all Member States is needed to find an alternative date and at the moment there are objections from several Member States regarding one of the other dates, either for this weekend or later”.
The Secretary of State added that if the elections are to be held on June 9, the government will have to “examine all possibilities to improve and facilitate participation in elections, whether through early voting or other means”.
Recognizing that these elections usually have low turnout, Tiago Antunes left an appeal: “I would like, even from this distance, to appeal to voting and participation”.
The last two European elections, in 2019 and 2014, were held at the end of May, after the 27 member states agreed to change the original date of the elections.
The only time European elections were ‘glued’ to national holidays was recently in 1994: they were held on the Sunday of 12 June, with Portugal Day on the Friday before and Saint Anthony’s Day in Lisbon the following Monday.
Source: DN
