2019 European Elections - results

The turnout rate of the 2019 European elections was significantly higher compared to the previous years: 51% of the European voters cast ballots whereas in 2014 only 42.61% of the citizens voted. The credits for this success should be given to the This Time I Am Voting campaign which strongly encouraged the European citizens to vote.

The fear of a looming coalition majority of far-right euroskeptic parties was easily dispelled once the provisional results of the elections were published in the night of 26 May. Despite an increase in votes across the EU, the sum of the percentages and seats obtained by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) and the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) respectively is not high enough to threaten a pro-European majority. However, it is worth mentioning that the far-right won the elections overwhelmingly in Italy and narrowly in France.

Moving to the results of the elections, the European People’s Party (EPP) took most of the votes equivalent to 23.83% and thus won most seats in the Parliament (179). The Socialist and Democrats (S&D) are the runner-up in this election, taking 20.37% of the votes and winning 153 seats. The Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) is the third group: it took 13.98% of the votes and won 105 seats. Together these first three groups have the majority in the Parliament. However, the views of these parties may differ on several issues, starting from the agreement on the next President of the European Commission, the EPP backs the process of the Spitzenkandidat meaning that the lead candidate of the majority party should be appointed President of the Commission. For this reason, the EPP supports the appointment of Manfred Weber. However, the agreement on this appointment is far from being achieved and will be the main subject of the political negotiations among the three parties.

Further information about the results of the European elections can be found here.