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Composition of the European Parliament
The information below is based on official information from the European Parliament on membership of the Parliament at the start of the constituent session.
Analysis
The campaign is over, Europe has spoken (or at least the four in ten people who turned out to vote have spoken – a record low).
Across the European Union’s 27 member states, people chose the 736 Members of the European Parliament that will represent them for the next five years. The results were clear: a clear victory for the centre-right parties; a surge for the Greens, notably in France and Germany; and a pretty disastrous set of results for socialists and social democrats.
Firstly (and unexpectedly) Europe turned to the centre-right – notably governing parties – in a time of economic crisis caused by what many perceive as excesses of capitalism. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party managed to almost double its number of seats; in Germany, the CDU of Angela Merkel (with the Bavarian CSU) will remain the biggest component part of the main centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) group, and the largest single national party in the Parliament; and Silvio Berlusconi overcame his recent controversies to lead his People of Freedom party to become the EPP’s second-largest formation. In Poland, the centre-right won nearly three-fifths of the vote and 28 seats – which will give the ‘old European’ EPP a significant Polish and therefore ‘new European’ accent.
Secondly, (Western) Europe went Green: in France and Germany, there was a significant surge for the environmentalist parties, with 14 seats in each country. In Belgium, the Greens won three seats, aided by a surge for the Francophone party, Ecolo. In the UK, the Greens won more votes (although they were hampered by the regional voting system and retain only their current two seats). In the Netherlands the Greens went from 2 to 3 seats.
Thirdly, the centre-left parties – who could have been expected to benefit from the economic crisis – did terribly. In Germany, the SPD won just over half the number of seats gained by the CDU/CSU – an inauspicious result for that party in view of national elections in the autumn. In France, the Socialist Party was squeezed out by the Greens. In the UK, Labour fell to 13 seats from the 19 it held before the poll. The Dutch Labour Party fell into third place behind the right-wing Freedom Party.
There was also a surge in the vote for smaller anti-European parties, often with populist or extremist views. The election of two MEPS from the overtly racist British National Party sent shockwaves through the UK. In Finland, the populist True Finns party won a seat; in Hungary, an anti-Gypsy party, Jobbik, gained three seats. Coupled with the victory for the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, which came second in share of the vote behind the ruling Christian Democrats, as well as a surge in support for the far-right in Austria, there will be a significant anti-European presence in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Of the more moderate Eurosceptic parties, Libertas (the anti-Lisbon Treaty movement founded by Declan Ganley on the back of success in the Irish referendum) failed to make an impact beyond the retention of seats for allied parties in France.
However, the UK demonstrated a real shift in public opinion against the EU (fuelled by protests about the lack of a referendum on the Lisbon text): the United Kingdom Independence Party won 13 seats (the same as Labour) and came second in the popular vote. The Conservatives, increasingly Eurosceptic and set to leave the EPP-ED group for a more Eurosceptic home, won 24 seats and topped the poll. With the BNP’s two members and anti-Europeans likely to win in Northern Ireland, the UK is likely to send more anti-EU, ‘withdrawalists’ or Eurosceptics to the Parliament than it does pro-Europeans. The issue of Britain’s membership of the Union appears to be back on the table.