We are writing this introduction just a couple of days after the Brexit referendum was held in the UK on June 23, 2016. The impressions of the historic “leave” decision of a plurality of UK citizens are still fresh, and the consequences of it cannot yet fully be overseen. It is clear however that this event will change both the UK and the EU profoundly. Given the historic quality of this decision, it is an easy forecast to say that the reasons and consequences of this Brexit decision will occupy the attention of scholars of political behaviour and European integration for some time to come. However, we feel that the results of the 2014 election which was held over two years ago in some ways foreshadowed the UK referendum result.
This Symposium of Electoral Studies deals with two of the most eye-catching facets of electoral politics that became apparent at the occasion of the 2014 European Parliament election. One of them was Euro-scepticism which already in 2014 left a strong mark on the elections result. The other was electoral mobilisation. We start our review of the election result with the latter.
