The Institute for Public Policy, a Romanian think tank expressed its concern on Thursday to the lack of interest and capacity of the Romanian political parties to mobilize its electorate to the June 7 European Parliamentary elections. Even though these elections should represent a maturity test for the Romanian political class, the estimated electoral turnout is lower than 20%, the Institute reads in a press release.

The Institute underlines that electoral turnout decreased significantly from 86% in 1990s, when citizens were first able to elect their representatives after the Communist collapse, to 58% in 2004. Last year less than a third of the citizens cast a vote for their representatives.

In the opinion of the institute, these number clearly point to a democratic deficit both from the candidates and from their supporting political parties. The institute criticizes the failure of the parties to promote a competitive electoral campaign with fair messages.