<img width="1024" height="578" src="https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/RTX6WMON-e1558948967872.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1024" class="attachment-medium_10 size-medium_10 wp-post-image" alt="" /><p>Votes are still being counted in the European Parliament elections, which wrapped up on Sunday, but one thing is certain: Faith in democracy isn&#8217;t dead yet.</p>
<p>The elections gave Brits (<a href="https://qz.com/1623396/eu-election-2019-in-five-posters/">and everyone else</a>) a chance to express their views on the UK&#8217;s decision to leave the bloc. They provided an opportunity <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/europe-s-smaller-parties-win-big-in-european-parliament-elections">for smaller parties</a> to make headway with voters disillusioned by mainstream politics. And they offered hundreds of millions of people the opportunity to express the direction they would like the bloc to go in: towards the inward-looking ideologies of populism and Euroskepticism, or the outward-looking politics of pro-European integration.</p>
<p>These factors pushed voters to turn up. The election attracted its highest voter turnout in two decades—50.5%—a sign that political apathy about the EU&#8217;s future hasn&#8217;t become the prevailing force amongst the bloc&#8217;s citizens yet.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"  data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">50.5% of EU citizens eligible to vote took part in the European elections, the highest turnout in 20 years. <a href="https://t.co/2Z6IJmAih0">pic.twitter.com/2Z6IJmAih0</a></p>
<p>&mdash; European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Europarl_EN/status/1132773174486151169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p>The number of eligible voters taking part in previous elections had been <a href="https://qz.com/1605690/european-election-belgiums-voter-turnout-rate-is-an-outlier/">on the decline</a>. Just <a href="https://www.politico.eu/interactive/voters-turnout-in-the-european-elections/">43% voted</a> in the last election in 2014, down from a high of 63% in 1979. There are many reasons for this, including low levels of interest for EU machinations in general, compared with national politics. As an institution, the EU can often feel &#8220;remote and inhuman&#8221; to voters, as <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/12/the-eus-next-big-election-is-heading-for-disaster/">James Traub writes in Foreign Policy.</a></p>
<p>But since the last elections, the bloc <a href="https://qz.com/1626415/voter-turnout-will-be-key-to-2019-eu-election-results/">has been roiled</a> by Brexit, a migrant crisis, climate change protests, and fears over how much anti-EU sentiment could undermine all that the EU has achieved since its founding. Voters took note.</p>
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<p>In the months before the election, <a href="https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_fear_will_save_the_eu">support for EU membership</a> amongst the bloc&#8217;s 28 member states skyrocketed. A survey commissioned by the <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_seven_days_to_save_the_european_union" data-link-name="in body link">European Council on Foreign Relations</a> (ECFR) showed that more than half of Europeans were worried the EU could collapse in the next 10 to 20 years, while 28% of EU voters said they believed that war between EU member states would be possible.</p>
<p>These concerns provided an opportunity for pro-Europeans. &#8220;Fear is a strong motivator,&#8221; <a href="https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_fear_will_save_the_eu">ECFR wrote</a>. &#8220;Populists have been successful in <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/populist-attitude-to-eu-matteo-salvini-far-right/">leveraging voters’ fears—</a>of immigrants, of change, of the other—into votes. Now it’s time for pro-Europeans to leverage a continent’s anxiety and come up with convincing solutions.&#8221;</p>
<p>The rise in voter turnout could also be a sign that the EU&#8217;s campaign to appeal to voters paid off. In the run-up to the start of elections on May 23, the European Parliament ran an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/23/choose-your-future-eu-raise-turnout-viral-video-european-elections">organized effort</a> to promote the elections. A network of thousands of campaigners held more than 2,000 events across Europe, with a social media campaign called &#8220;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/23/choose-your-future-eu-raise-turnout-viral-video-european-elections">Choose Your Future</a>.&#8221; Other EU institutions appealed to voters through <a href="https://qz.com/1623396/eu-election-2019-in-five-posters/">evocative posters and slogans.</a></p>
<p>The election&#8217;s preliminary results are by no means a resounding victory for pro-European sentiment. While pro-EU parties in a coalition are likely to hold on to their majority in the EU Parliament, wins by nationalist parties underscore the split in voters over the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/world/europe/european-elections-results.html">EU&#8217;s future</a>. But at the very least, high voter turnout signaled that the bloc&#8217;s citizens are invested in giving the institution a chance to course correct—a chance it might not get again.</p>