With the latest projections giving them a gain of 138 seats on the evening of Sunday 9 June, the European Socialists entered the final stretch of the European election campaign on Friday 7 June with relative confidence that they would secure their place as the second largest European political family, after the European People's Party (EPP).
Although, according to the polls, they will lose a few seats compared to the current composition of the European Parliament (139 out of 705 members),...