On June 9, more than 373 million European voters took part in the European Parliament elections, setting the Union’s political tone for the next five years.
According to preliminary election results, the European People’s Party (EPP/EPP) won a clear victory, even as far-right groups made big gains in many EU member states. The center-right group, the EPP, is on the way to having about 184 of the 720 seats in the European Parliament. During the last five years, the EPP is the only dominant component of the centrist coalition. The center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) remained stable in these elections, unlike other parties. The EPP has a strong position in terms of defining EU policy and turning it to the right, which it confirmed in these elections.
The EPP may rejoin the grand coalition with the Socialists and Liberals. Experts say the party may also seek to work with more right-wing parties on certain issues if it can do so without alienating its centrist allies.
As polls and experts also predicted in an interview with “Armenpress”, extreme right forces are growing in the European Union. In France, the “National Rally” received almost a third of the votes, thus establishing itself as the main ultra-nationalist group for the next five years of the parliament. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party also surged, gaining the support of more than a quarter of voters.
The two most right-wing groups in the European Parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, will control 131 seats in the European Parliament. If the extreme right formed a single group, it would be the second largest force in the parliament, after the dominant EPP. But according to experts, rivalries and divisions within the ranks of the far right make this scenario unlikely, but their weight will put pressure on EU politics.
These elections were the most painful for the “greens” of many European countries. Five years after official Brussels made the Green Deal a key policy issue, voters turned against environmentalists. The Greens’ most significant losses came in the delegations representing France and Germany, which made up half of the movement’s strength in parliament. Despite small gains in countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, the group will lose more than a dozen seats, falling from the fourth largest party to the sixth.
The Renew Europe group, the third pillar of the tripartite grand coalition that has dominated parliament for the past five years, can be said to have collapsed on June 9. In France, Emmanuel Macron’s party suffered a major defeat as voters expressed their frustration with the national government by voting for the far right. The group’s seven Spanish seats go entirely to the centrist Popular Party. Losses were also recorded in Romania, Denmark and Estonia. The situation for the faction is particularly bad news for Macron and his like-minded figures, who had hoped to use these mandates to advance their vision of Europe in Brussels.
After the formation of the legislative body, the next stage is the election of the president of the European Commission, which is approved by the MEPs. According to the results of the vote on June 9, Ursula von der Leyen has a good chance for another five years in office. Von der Leyen was elected in 2019 thanks to the votes of the EPP, Social Democrats and Renew Europe factions. This time, although the chances are high, many members of the main coalition have clearly stated that they will not vote for von der Leyen.
With more than 373 million voters, the European Parliament elections are a huge democratic test that will set the continent’s political tone for the next five years.
According to preliminary data published by the European Parliament, voter turnout across the European Union was 51 percent this year.
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