Motives behind the abstention of Italian voters 2024

For the first time since the re-establishment of democracy in 1946, more than half of the Italian voters did not cast their ballot in the 2024 European elections. Abstention has been growing since the 1990s, and citizens' disaffection with politics increased in recent years. When asked about the reasons motivating abstention, one third of those who did not vote declared that they considered the current political system dirty and corrupt. Moreover, 27 percent of the people thought that nothing would change in their life with their vote. One quarter of the respondents felt fed up and angry, while for 20 percent of them, not voting was a form of protesting against parties and politicians.