The president of the European Commission and candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP) to repeat the position, the German Ursula von der Leyen, celebrated this Sunday (06/09/2024) the victory of her political group in European elections marked by the rise of the extreme right, which won in France, causing an electoral advance, and in Austria and became the second political force in Germany.
“We will build a bastion against the extremes, left and right,” said in Brussels the Christian Democratic candidate to once again preside over the Community Executive, whose party would have obtained more than 180 of the 720 seats in the European Parliament, according to the first official data.
“Today is a good day for the EPP, we have won the European elections (…) Voters have recognized our leadership in the last five years,” Von der Leyen said from her campaign headquarters in the Belgian capital.
At his side, the president of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, celebrated the confidence in his political family, which would have won the elections with more than the 176 seats it had. Weber called for “a democratic Europe”, asked that the “winner of the elections” be allowed to preside over the European Commission and assured that the popular ones are the best antidote to extremes.
Following the EPP, according to the polls, would be the Alliance of European Socialists and Democrats (S&D), with 135 MEPs (four less). They would be followed with 71 seats by the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, with two more, and the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID), with 62 seats, with thirteen more.
The Greens/European Free Alliance, which would add 53 seats, would fall sharply to sixth place compared to the fourth place they held in the previous chamber, in which they had 18 more seats. The smallest group in the European Chamber would continue to be The Left, which today scored 34 seats and in the outgoing chamber had three more.
