Second-Order Elections, but also ‘Low-Cost’ Campaigns? National Parties and Campaign Spending in European Elections: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract This article provides an innovative empirical contribution to the understudied question of party spending in EU election campaigns through a comparison between the cases of France and Spain between 1994 and 2009 (and, to a lesser extent, Great Britain and Ireland). It shows that mainstream parties have become increasingly more reliant on state funding in EU elections as compared with national campaigns. It also illustrates that mainstream parties have restricted or even limited the resources that they have been willing to mobilise in EU election campaigns, a trend that contrasts with minor parties and with the ever-increasing expenditure that characterises national elections. National parties have also limited the expenditure related to public communication activities in EU elections, while most spending has been devoted to routine administration costs. Overall, the weak and even sometimes declining financial mobilisations of the relevant party organisations in European campaigns can throw new light on the persistent ‘second-order’ national character of EU elections.