The European Union holds elections to the European Parliament next Sunday, June 9: 720 MEPs are elected, representatives who are renewed every five years. This is the current configuration:
What will be the new balance of forces that will emerge from the polls? What parties are presented? How much does each country matter? The following graphics summarize the keys to the appointment.
What is chosen
The names of the 720 MEPs will come from the polls of the Twenty-seven Member States, in votes that follow the electoral regulations of each country. In some states, such as Austria, citizens from the age of 16 can vote.
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Small countries are overrepresented, a correction established so that all members have a voice in the European Parliament. Population determines how many parliamentarians each member sends, with a minimum of six for the least populated (Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg) and a maximum of 96 for the country with the most inhabitants (Germany). Thus, each MEP in Malta represents around 90,000 citizens, while those in Germany give a voice to almost 900,000. Spain has one MEP for every 800,000 residents.

The European elections are characterized by high abstention. Participation in 2019 reached 50%, and it was considered a good figure. In 2009 and 2014 the percentage of voters was around 42%. One factor that encourages going to the polls is that the elections coincide with other elections in each country.
Who you can vote for in Spain and how MEPs are grouped
Spain appoints 61 MEPs, two more than in the previous elections. And the electoral system is different from that of the General Elections. In the European elections, a minimum voting percentage is not required to access the distribution of seats and they are governed by a single constituency. This second characteristic encourages nationalist forces to gather their forces in coalitions.
For example, as the graph shows, PNV and Canarian Coalition run together within the Coalition for a Europe of Solidarity (CEUS), and EH Bildu, ERC and BNG top the lists of Ahora Repúblicas.
Voters in Spain choose from the same lists, although the ballots present slight variations: the candidates who appear in the first positions are different in the case of coalitions, at the request of the parties that comprise them. For example, the CEUS coalition ballots are different depending on the voting location. In the Basque Country only the PNV candidates are shown; in those of the Canary Islands, only those of CC. In the rest of Spain, a ballot is distributed that includes candidates from both parties. If the coalition only wins one seat, it will go to the head of the list, Oihane Agirregoitia from Bilbao.
When MEPs reach the chamber they join together in transnational political groups. In the outgoing Parliament, which took office in 2019, seven families were formed, linked by their political affinity, from conservatives to progressives or liberals (and a group of non-registered). Each family must be made up of at least 23 deputies representing at least six Member States, a quarter of the total.
The largest group in the legislature that is now ending is the European People’s Party, dominated by the CDU, the German Christian Democrats, followed by the Spanish delegation of the PP. The Social Democrats, the second largest group, are led by the Spanish PSOE. The rest of the families until the polls shake the chamber again are, in order of strength, the liberals, two families from the extreme right and two others from the left.
What the polls predict
The polls predict a shift to the right. The European People’s Party will win the elections again, according to the average of national polls from Europe Elects, an organization dedicated to collecting electoral data on the continent. The Popular Party would obtain 180 seats, according to its latest projection, released last Friday, which places the Socialists at 138 seats and the Liberals at 86. The moderate grand coalition would thus obtain more than 400 parliamentarians.
The ultra formations, however, arrive at this electoral event at maximum levels in many countries and in the European Parliament itself. According to the polls, they will also grow 3% compared to 2019. Far-right groups want to impose extreme measures against immigration, slow down the green agenda and return the weight of many decisions to the national arena.
ECR (European Reformists and Conservatives), the formation that includes Vox or Brothers of Italy, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, would obtain 75 seats; Identity and Democracy (ID), which contains Marine Le Pen’s National Regroupment (RN), would remain at 68. Always according to data from Europe Elects, which in its latest projection has taken into account that the Identity and Democracy group has expelled the ultra-German party AfD from its ranks, for statements by its candidate in which he whitewashed the Nazi paramilitary organization SS.
What the chosen ones do
The European Parliament develops community laws, approves and supervises budgets. One of the first tasks of parliamentarians when they arrive in Strasbourg is to elect the president of the European Commission, which in the last term was Ursula von der Leyen.
The president of the Commission is proposed by the European Council, made up of the heads of State or Government of the 27 members of the EU. As the Council has to take election results into account, it usually suggests a candidate from the most voted political group, who will then have to be approved by an absolute majority of Parliament. Von der Leyen has run for re-election.
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