Far-right parties have made big gains at the European Parliament, as voting concluded on Sunday on the final day of elections for the next five-year term.
Some 38 million Spaniards were eligible to vote on Sunday to elect 61 members of the 720-seat European Parliament, with the right-wing People’s Party (PP) securing 34.1% of the vote and 22 seats (an increase of nine) and the PSOE a 30.1% share and 20 seats (down one). In third place, the far-right Vox won two more seats than in 2019, having an overall total of 6.
Alvise Perez, a far-right social media influencer running against what he describes as universal corruption, managed to obtain three seats for the ‘Se Acabó La Fiesta‘ (‘The party’s over’) group, with a campaign mostly conducted through the messaging app Telegram.
Catalan pro-independence parties lost several seats. Despite Junts+ winning in 2019, they lost 2 seats, obtaining only one. Esquerra (‘Ahora Republicas‘), despite coming in third with 14.82% of the vote, lost six percentage points compared to 2019, and Junts, with 18.02% of the vote, lost 10 percentage points.
The combined right won nearly 50%, while the left followed with 43%. The leftist vote was split between Sumar – the junior partner in the government coalition – that won three seats – and left-wing Podemos, led by former Equality Minister Irene Montero, which got two.
The European People’s Party were expected to win 189 seats in the future EU parliament. They would be followed by the S&D (Socialists) with 135 seats, while the Renew Europe party would be the third most-voted group with 83 representatives.
In France, President Emanuel Macron made a surprise announcement that he was calling early legislative elections after his party suffered a heavy defeat from the far-right National Rally party.
In Germany, support for Olaf Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats sank to a projected 14%, behind the extreme-right Alternative for Germany, which surged into second place.
With millions of Europeans having cast their ballots this week for a new European Parliament, far-right parties were expected to gain more power amid a rise in the cost of living and farmers’ discontent, concern over immigration, and while the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are also key topics weighing on the minds of voters.
Updated seat projection for the new Parliament based on available provisional or final national results published after voting finished in all member states as of 01.07 CET on 10 June.
— European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) June 9, 2024
The group composition is based on structure of outgoing Parliament. https://t.co/FxYGUAeHfo pic.twitter.com/x6psQhNWBh
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