EU riles Portugal by teeing up June dates for 2024 elections

STRASBOURG — Thirteen months to go. 

The European Union is poised to pencil in June 6 to 9 next year as the date of the next EU elections, which will usher in a major changing of the guard in the bloc’s most powerful institutions. 

But the imminent move by EU governments gathered in Brussels is enraging Portugal — because a national holiday falls on Monday, June 10. 

“This would be terrible in terms of electoral participation, and the risk of abstention picking up and going through the roof,” Portugal’s secretary of state for Europe, Tiago Antunes, told POLITICO.

The Portuguese government fears that voters taking advantage of a long weekend will be less inclined to cast their ballots, and is trying to pull off a somewhat doomed diplomatic coup to change the election dates to May.

“We’re trying to build a coalition of other member states trying to gather support for an alternative date,” Antunes said. 

Voters will determine who wins seats for the European Parliament for the five years between 2024 to 2029. This will also trigger a shake-up of the EU institutions’ other top jobs, including three EU presidents and a raft of commissioners. 

The dates have been all but settled among countries gathered in the Council of the EU, and are soon to be formally approved among ambassadors, according to an EU diplomat who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing talks.

“I see no alternatives, all are exhausted,” the diplomat said. “It is of course regrettable to have this situation, but inevitable.”

The choice of the June dates is automatic — unless EU countries can unanimously agree to change them.

‘Not ideal’

Asked on Wednesday if there could be an exception for Portuguese voters to be able to vote at a different time, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola acknowledged that it is “not an ideal weekend for Portugal.”

“What we will have to do, while we are still waiting for official confirmation of the date, is to … look at all possibilities and make sure that … we can present candidates for next year’s election that will encourage as many people in Portugal to go out and vote for a strong European Union,” she said.

The Portuguese national holiday, also known as the Dia de Camões, commemorates the death of Luís de Camões, considered to be Portugal’s greatest poet, on June 10, 1580.

In a quirk of EU law that speaks volumes about the power balance between the EU’s institutions, it is the national governments gathered in the Council of the EU that decide the dates of the elections for the European Parliament’s 705 seats.

The June timing was echoed in a readout of a meeting of the Parliament’s political leadership last week. 

Metsola told the Conference of Presidents at a closed-door meeting last Friday that the “default date” ending June 9 would be the “most likely” outcome of the Council’s negotiations, given that it would take a unanimous decision to adjust the dates, according to a summary prepared by the Socialists and Democrats’ secretariat and obtained by POLITICO.

Lisbon’s firmest ally in its frustration with holding elections in June seems to be the European Parliament itself. 

Earlier this year, Metsola lobbied the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU to set the period of May 23 to May 26 next year as the dates, reflecting the will of the majority of political groups in the Parliament. However, it appears this appeal fell on deaf ears. 

“Until now, Parliament has not received a formal confirmation from the [Swedish-led Council of the EU] Presidency,” said EU Parliament spokesperson Delphine Colard.

Antunes said “we would prefer” the same dates as the Parliament suggested, but would settle for any alternative.

Holding an earlier election would make it more likely for the Parliament to be able to vote on its nominee for president of the Commission before the long summer break.

The question will be on the agenda at a meeting next week, the EU diplomat and Antunes confirmed. After that, it should be rubber-stamped by national ministers at the next meeting of the Council of the EU in May, the diplomat said. 

A four-day window for voting, in the current proposal running Thursday through Sunday, is necessary because EU countries tend to hold elections on different days. For example, Germany holds elections on Sundays, while Slovakia’s next vote is on a Saturday.