This Policy Position was first published on 4 April 2024 in a slightly shortened version on Verfassungsblog and is available in German only.
In Germany, 35 political parties will participate in the 2024 European elections. In 2019, there were also 41 parties that competed for mandates, 13 of which entered the European Parliament. Seven of these were small parties that received less than five per cent of the vote and won only one or two seats each. This is possible because Germany has not applied an electoral threshold in European elections since 2014. However, the reintroduction of an entry threshold has been regularly discussed. This policy position analyses the role of small parties in the European Parliament and proposes alternative strategies to avoid fragmentation: In order to protect Parliament's ability to act in the short and medium term, politicians should focus on winning back votes for a stable pro-European majority.