Brussels, Jun 10 (EFE).- The three largest groups in the European Parliament – the conservative, center-right European People’s Party, the progressive, center-left Socialists and Democrats, and the liberal Renew Europe (RE) – have maintained their dominant position after securing a combined 402 seats of the 720 available, according to the latest provisional results on Monday.
The results would also confirm gains made by far-right parties in the European Parliament elections, which concluded Sunday night after four days.
According to the latest results published by the EP on Monday morning, the European People’s Party (EPP) has won 185 seats – an increase of nine compared to the previous legislature –, the Alliance of European Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the second largest group with 137 seats – a loss of two MEPs, while the Liberal RE won 80 seats, 22 less than previously.
The current European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has reached out to the Social Democrats and Liberals to try to reach an agreement to build a new pro-European majority for the next five years of the EU legislature.
Both the Social Democrats and the Liberals have expressed their willingness to agree to such an arrangement.
Their first task will be to confirm the candidate for President of the European Commission who is nominated by the heads of state and government of EU member states in the coming weeks, a post for which the incumbent Von der Leyen herself is a favorite.
To achieve a more comfortable majority, they could reach out to the Greens, who in 2019 abstained in the election of the current European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, but have ended up voting with the majority on many occasions.
The ecologist group is projected to have won a total of 52 seats, 19 less than it had before the polls.
The Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), a group that has included far-right groups including Spain’s Vox in the last legislature, won four additional seats for a total of 73.
The far-right Identity and Democracy, meanwhile, is projected to grow by nine seats, to 58.
These two far-right-wing groups are waiting for similar parties that currently do not belong to any European political group to enter into negotiations to swell their ranks in the coming weeks.
The Left group, for its part, reduced its parliamentary representation by one seat and would be left with 36, according to the provisional results. EFE
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