Preliminary results are in following the 2024 European Parliament election, and the chamber will tilt a little further to the right when it reconvenes in Strasbourg soon.
Gains being made by parties on the far-right were among the most notable outcomes as Europe voted, though the center-right had the most success overall.
2024 European Parliament Election Results: Overall
The European Parliament increased by 15 members at this election, for a total of 720. 361 seats constitute a majority.
| EPP (European People’s Party) | Center-right | 184 (+8) |
| S&D (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) | Center-left | 139 |
| Renew (Renew Europe) | Center, liberal | 80 (-22) |
| ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists) | Right-wing, soft Euroscepticism | 73 (+4) |
| ID (Identity & Democracy) | Far-right, Euroscepticism | 58 (+9) |
| Green/EFA (European Free Alliance) | Green politics | 52 (-20) |
| NI (Non-Inscrits) | Not aligned | 45 |
| Left | Left-wing | 36 (-1) |
| Other | Undetermined | 53 |
This includes projected results via the European Parliament excluding Ireland, which has not yet reported its totals.
2024 European Parliament Election: Notable National Results
France
The European election was a disaster for the group led by President Emmanuel Macron. His Renew bloc lost 22 seats, one of the biggest drops seen at this election. This was in part because his party fared poorly at home, tying with S&D on 13 seats, but both getting drubbed by ID, the far-right bloc that came away with 30, a gain of 12. In fact, the majority of the seats won by ID come from France. Renew lost 10 seats.
So bad was the news for Macron that he called a snap parliamentary election on Sunday. France will vote for a new parliament on 30 June and on 7 July, with a British general election in between.
Austria
ID also had a good night in Austria. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) came in first place, winning six of 20 seats. Behind them were the EPP and S&D with five each. This marks their best result since 1996.
Italy
The right-wing did well in Italy, but there was a large re-alignment to go with the ECR of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister. The ECR gained 14 seats while ID lost 14. S&D gained seven, while the EPP lost four.
Spain
The group aligned with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, S&D, was surpassed in Spain’s European elections by the EPP, backed by the opposition Partido Popular (PP). That group gained nine seats to 22, while S&D lost one to fall to 20. Renew lost almost all of their seats there, dropping from nine seats to one.
Germany
S&D finished in fourth place in Germany’s EU election, marking a bitter defeat for Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his social-democratic SPD. Ursula von der Leyen’s EPP won the most seats by far with 30, while Non-Inscrits were second on 17 – those members are mostly from AfD, or the far-right Alternative for Germany. The Greens finished in third with 16 seats, while S&D will claim 14.
Results Overview
The 2024 European Parliament election marks the second in succession where the EPP and S&D did not control a majority of seats between the two of them. Prior to 2019, they always had.
Though ID is going to get a lot of media attention because of how and where they made their gains, it would be hard to argue that the big winner is not the EPP. They won the most seats again, over 40 more than the next-closest group, and they gained almost as many seats as ID. (Though parties like AfD in Germany are not part of that group, they are ideologically in a similar boat, and they also did well.) It was nevertheless a good result for the far-right.
The EPP are nowhere near a majority – such a thing would be almost impossible under this electoral system and with as many groups as there are – but they will again be front and center in the next commission. The question is, how does the EPP find its voting partners given some of the major shifts?
Renew and S&D helped Ursula von der Leyen become president of the European Commission in 2019, but of those, only the EPP gained seats. The EPP, S&D, and Renew all getting together would result in 403 seats, but S&D split its votes last time, and not all Renew voted for her, either. It would not be wise to assume that all of those groups will back the EPP with unanimity, as these are not monolithic blocs: They may have party groups in the EU Parliament, but these represent dozens of political parties in many countries.
Groups of the right – the EPP, ECR, ID, and some unaligned parties – would be short of a majority as of now. It is also very unlikely that any other group outside of this collection would be willing to work with the right-wing groups.
The EPP, who are the most likely to continue holding the presidency of the European Commission, will have to carefully piece together their coalitions on key votes. While the EPP themselves did well, those who might be predisposed to support them did not. Parties to the EPP’s right gained seats, and while this parliament is unlikely to pass legislation backed by the far-right, those groups could play spoilers.
