The European People’s Party (EPP) and Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), which have been setting the tone for the EU’s policy for years, lost 75 seats in last week’s elections and won’t be able to form their grand coalition this year, while liberals, the Greens and eurosceptics came out the main winners.
The elections to the European Parliament were held across the bloc from May 23-26, with the turnout coming out to almost 51 percent, the highest since 1994.
Their traditional allies, the social democrats, which include the United Kingdom’s main opposition Labour Party and Germany’s Social Democratic Party, have secured 147 seats, which is 40 less than they received in the 2014 EU elections.Nationalists Win in France, Italy, Hungary
Salvini’s Lega, in turn, has a more comfortable lead in Italy, winning 34.3 percent of the vote, which is an over 11-point lead over the closest runner-up, the Democratic Party.EPP Mulling Options For Majority Coalition
“For me, as lead candidate of the EPP [for the post of the head of the European Commission], one thing, one message is crystal clear: we will not work together with those who do not believe in Europe, with those who want to destroy Europe. The Europe of today is our Europe, it is Europe of EPP… and we will defend this Europe against the nationalists”, Weber said at a press conference late on Sunday.
The potential alliances within a majority coalition will have a direct impact on the election of the new head of the European Commission. The vote will be one of the first things that the incoming parliament must do.
The candidate for the post is first elected by the European Council and then has to be approved by an absolute majority of parliamentarians.
It is unclear whether the ALDE will support Weber’s nomination if the president of the European Commission is elected under the lead candidate system. The Greens have not showed much of support for Weber either, saying that they would make their decision based on the candidates’ programs.