European Parliament elections affect a supra-national, European body. Nevertheless their outcomes are often interpreted as if they were national elections, with repercussion in the national political arena. Such a counterfactual representation, in which European parliamentary elections are presented as national parliamentary elections, forms the central perspective of this chapter. We model the influences of variations in turnout and variations in determinants of party choice for European Parliament and National Parliament elections, to determine what party characteristics influence the relative success or failure of political parties at European elections. The outcomes show that European electoral success is not only determined by party characteristics alone, but is also dependent upon the cycle of elections in the different countries
