As predicted by the latest polls, the Party of European Socialists succeeded, on Sunday 9 June, in maintaining its position as the second largest political family in the European Parliament after the Christian Democrats of the European People’s Party (EPP) (see EUROPE 13426/1).
With 139 seats, the Socialist family did slightly less well than in 2019 (140), but certain setbacks, such as the poor performance of the German SPD, which, with 14% of the vote, suffered its worst score since 1949, were already anticipated.
At the same time, the good performance of the French (14 seats), Spanish (20 seats) and Italian (17 seats) Socialist formations allowed for the S&D Group to stabilise.
The Swedish Left Alliance also made strong gains with five seats.
Nicolas Schmit, the PES ‘Spitzenkandidat’, was quick to congratulate the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and her party, the EPP, on their victory and said he was “open to strong cooperation with all the democratic forces in this European Parliament; we have said this from the outset and we continue to say it”.
“We are ready to negotiate an agreement for the coming years to make Europe safer, more social and stronger economically”, added the PES candidate, refusing to work with those who “want to dismantle Europe”.
The Luxembourger also said he was pleased to see that democratic forces always seem ready to unite and work together. He said he was “confident” that these forces would be able to find a way to govern together.
Earlier, the Vice-Chair of the S&D Group, Pedro Marques, had also welcomed the stability of the results, stating that this proved that “Nicolas Schmit ran a good campaign” and that voters approved of the concrete results achieved by the Socialist Group, whether on the ‘Green Deal’ or the social dimension of Europe.
These results point to the renewal of a “pro-European” majority in the European Parliament, added the Socialist, who recalled his family’s refusal to negotiate a coalition with the ECR or ID groups.
The Socialists will fight to maintain a pro-European majority that is notably “pro-Rule of law” and in favour of continued support for Ukraine. “There will be no collusion with the far right of the ECR and ID, that’s very clear”.
To see the results of the European elections and the latest projections of the future hemicycle of the European Parliament: https://aeur.eu/f/cl2 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)