In Sickness and in Health- A roll-call study of the Members of the European Parliament’s voting behavior during Covid-19

Abstract: The voting behavior of the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) has been widely studied. However, little is written about the effects of crises. This thesis tries to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the MEPs voting behavior in relation to their European political group (EPG) and in addition their national party. This was done using the two theories: the two principal dilemma and the issue of salience, which hypothesized a decreased influence of the EPG and an increased influence of the national party. This was analyzed by doing a roll-call analysis of the final annual budget vote each year between 2014 and 2021 using coefficient of determination and cohesion index. When analyzing the effect on the national party, there was little difference in coefficient of determination between the years both prior to and during the pandemic. The results of the coefficient of determination for voting behavior and EPG showcased some but weak support for a Covid-19 effect, however this was strengthened by the results from the cohesion index done for the EPGs which displayed a larger decrease in cohesion for 2020 than the years prior. The support had however weakened to 2021 for which there was no clear support.