Traditional parties win big in the latest European election forecast

The latest seat forecast for the European Parliament confirms that traditional parties secured a landslide victory in Sunday’s European elections. Preliminary results for all EU countries except Ireland are available on the Parliament’s results service, which describes the situation in Europe at 10:45 Finnish time on Monday morning. It appears that the European People’s Party (EPP) will remain the largest party in the European Parliament, including members of the coalition from Finland. The forecast indicates that the EPP would secure 184 seats, five more than in the previous term.

The EPP’s top candidate, Ursula von der Leyen, claimed victory in the European elections and emphasized their role as an anchor of stability. He noted that centrist forces still hold the majority in the parliament, highlighting the importance of this for European stability. The Social Democrats (S&D) group is expected to remain the second-largest in the parliament, with 139 seats, similar to their previous representation. The center-liberal Renew group is forecasted to remain the third-largest group, with 79 representatives.

The center-right EPP aims to initiate coalition negotiations with the Social Democrats and Renew in the upcoming days. The European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR) is projected to be the fourth-largest group with 73 seats. The Greens of the European Parliament / European Free Alliance would drop to fifth position, losing seats from 71 to 52. The far-right Identity and Democracy group and left-wing group The Left would remain the sixth and smallest groups in the parliament, respectively. The composition of the groups may change after the elections, with some representatives remaining non-aligned and others joining political groups in the future.