Expected to be held on May 26 in Spain, the next European Parliament elections are a key political momentum for the European Union. More than 400 million people are called to vote in one of the biggest democratic exercises in the world, to change not only the composition of the European Parliament, but also to influence the appointment of key decision-making positions in different EU institutions, such as the President of the European Commission.

Elections to the European Parliament seem to have been traditionally unable to capture the public’s interest: turnout remains far lower than most national elections, with the 2014 elections being the lowest-ever since 1979. In spite of this, the stakes in the upcoming 2019 elections are unusually high, raising thorny questions on how the European Parliament will look like in the future.

With elections coming up, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Lega Nord leader Matteo Salvini has been attempting to create a new pan-European nationalist bloc, dubbed the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations (EAPN). So far, the group has garnered support not only from Marine Le Pen’s Front National, but also from other populist and far-right parties in Austria, Germany, Denmark, Estonia and Finland. As the anti-European EAPN seems on its way to winning more than one-third of seats in the European Parliament, we can as well expect it to advocate a return to a ‘Europe of Nations’, questioning fundamental principles of the Union such as the free movement of people and goods. Also Britain’s Brexit debate plays a role in the future of the European Parliament: with the UK still legally a member to date, the country is obliged to take part in the EU-wide poll and to send Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to Brussels. Nevertheless, how long these will sit in the European Parliament is yet unknown.

Amongst these questions, there is an important issue which tends to be overlooked in current public debates: what gender composition will the European Parliament have? The question is pertinent because women are still grossly under-represented in political decision-making positions across Europe. Only two presidents of the European Parliament have been women: the iconic French feminist and Auschwitz survivor Simone Veil, who served as the first president from 1979 to 1982, and Nicole Fontaine, from 1999 to 2001. Today, only 37% of the MEPs are women and we are yet to see the first female president of the European Commission or European Council. The low participation of women in politics seems even more paradoxical when put alongside education statistics. According to Eurostat, 54% of all tertiary students in the EU are women (57% of Master and 48% of PhD students), but it looks like having more highly educated women does not translate into more access to high-level, decision-making positions.

Media seem to play an important role in the political under-representation of women at the European level. According to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), media coverage of women in politics is not proportional to the number of female candidates. In fact, women only account for 19% of the politicians pictured and heard in the traditional media (radio, television and newspapers). Not only they appear less frequently, but when they do appear in the news, they are often victim to bias, stereotypes and sexism. For example, they are more likely to have their appearance and clothes commented on and less likely to be asked for their agenda on political fields such as finance or defence. Things do not look any better on digital media, where female politicians seem to be the target of a disproportionate amount of hostility and abuse compared to their male counterparts, encompassing all sorts of threats of gender-based physical or sexual harassment and assault.

This gender imbalance, both across EU governing bodies and institutions as well as in media representation and visibility, should be addressed as a form of democratic deficit: when half of the population is persistently under-represented, the functioning and legitimacy of the democratic system is inevitably put under question. Moreover, while women’s political representation is necessary for women to put their confidence in current political institutions, women politicians also act as role models for aspiring women candidates in the future.

There is plenty to worry about in these 2019 European elections: the rise of anti-European, right-wing populism; the uncertainty around Brexit; the unresolved issues of how to tackle migration or reforming the Eurozone. While women are not automatically better leaders, research does show that having more women in political parties fosters a more inclusive and balanced policymaking process. Female leaders tend to be consensus-builders who listen, focus on getting results and work across political aisles. With many issues to watch in these upcoming elections, women’s talent, knowledge, skills and ideas will be needed to face emerging and old challenges across Europe.