Riga ANALYSIS The 2019 European Parliament elections in the Baltic states DR DAUNIS AUERS, UNIVERSITY OF LATVIA May 2019 „ The three Baltic states showed a mixed pro fi le in the European Parliament elections. While Estonia and Lithuania were largely occupied with domestic events, Latvia expe­rienced a long, high-pro fi le campaign. At the same time all three countries showed that the European and the national level are closely interlinked and do interplay with each other. „ Due to a preferential voting logic in a proportional representation system all estab­lished political parties put forward lists containing candidates with either extensive political experience, current MEPs or high-pro fi le personalities. In this way they bene­fi ted from a pronounced experience/competence versus fresh-faces/innovation di­vide. „ The political cleavages present in many older Western European democracies were largely absent. The campaigning focused on economy, immigration and security is­sues as well as relations with Russia. With this the mainstream parties were the big­gest winners in the region, with the centrist European Peoples Party(EPP), the Social­ists and Democrats(S&D) and The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) winning 17 of the 25 seats in the region. The Greens/European Free Alliance (G/EFA) and the European Conservatives and reformists(ECR) each won three seats. „ Like in prior EP-elections rightwing populist and Eurosceptic parties did not manage to achieve a decisive electoral turnout but the issue may potentially grow with more vigour in the years to come.