The European Elections from the Inside

From 06 to 09 June 2024, around 360 million eligible voters were called upon to cast their vote in the largest transnational election in the world and elect the 720 members of the 10th European Parliament. For the first time, 16-year-olds were allowed to vote in Germany, Belgium, Malta and Austria and 17-yearolds in Greece. Voter turnout in the pan-European context increased slightly to 51 per cent compared to 50.07 per cent in the last European elections in 2019.

The European elections were declared as the most important elections against the backdrop of the rise of right-wing populist trends in Europe. There were voices that spoke of an "existential struggle", e. g. a choice between democracy and freedom or those political forces that understand that we need a more integrated European Union to defend the interests of Europeans on the one hand and those driven by ideology on the other, who want less Europe or even reject it in principle.

The clear winner of the election is the European People's Party (EPP) with lead candidate Ursula von der Leyen well ahead of the S&D group (Social Democrats and Socialists). The liberal Renew group lost heavily but remained the third largest group, while the Greens suffered heavy losses, and the right-wing and far-right groups emerged stronger from the election; the Greens, previously the fourth-strongest force to date, falling behind the right-wing conservative ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists) and the radical right-wing Identity & Democracy (ID) group.

The predicted dramatic shift to the right has failed to materialise, but there has been a shift to the right in large parts of Europe. However, the political centre will have the key task of organising majorities with which the major political priorities of the EU can be implemented. On the next page, we first look at the pan-European election results and the likely distribution of seats in the new legislative period. It should be emphasised that this is a snapshot and may change as the parliament and the political groups are constituted.

The election results from 27 member states are then presented below. This is also a snapshot of how the parties and political groups were constituted two days after the election. New parties that have not yet joined a European party family - as well as alliances between parties from different European party families - are included under "Others".