Protecting the Fairness of European Parliament Elections via Preliminary Ruling G. Szabó, Dániel Author aut Text xx# 2023 Verfassungsblog 2023-12-07 eng
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 Supreme or constitutional courts regularly step in to protect the democratic process by deciding election disputes. It is remarkable that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has so far barely been engaged concerning the European Parliament (EP) elections. Using Hungary as an example, I will argue in the following that the CJEU is institutionally well-positioned to help protect the integrity of the 2024 EP elections via preliminary ruling procedures. Hungarian democracy has been in decline, according to the EP, the Commission and various democracy indices. The problems include the lack of a level playing field, targeted action by authorities against opposition parties, overlaps between the activities of the government and the governing party, state funding of campaigning and party financing in general, lack of media pluralism, and the different means of voting for citizens living abroad (postal vote for some and not for others). I argue that the CJEU could and should be engaged to protect the fairness of the EP elections in Hungary. CC BY-SA 4.0 G. Szabó, Dániel Demokratie EP elections European Parliament Europäisches Parlament | Brüssel Luxemburg (Stadt) Straßburg Wahlen preliminary reference Demokratie Europäisches Parlament | Brüssel Luxemburg (Stadt) Straßburg Wahlen 342 https://verfassungsblog.de/protecting-the-fairness-of-european-parliament-elections-via-preliminary-ruling/ Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH 10.59704/3ed20c28aeb5815e 231207 10.59704/3ed20c28aeb5815e Converted from MARCXML to MODS version 3.7 using MARC21slim2MODS3-7.xsl (Revision 1.140 20200717)