European Commission president’s party remains largest parliamentary group while heavyweights Macron and Scholz damaged.
The European Parliament lurched to the political right on Sunday, with the parties of heavyweight leaders Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz suffering damaging losses in French and German polls.
French President Macron dissolved the national parliament after his centrist group was trounced by the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen, in a move that will lead to legislative elections at the end of June.
Alternative for Germany (AfD), another far-right group, followed the conservative Christian Democrats to take second place there, while the far-right party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came out on top in Italy too.
However, the key takeaway for those watching China policy was that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) remained the bloc’s largest parliamentary group.
The EPP won 189 seats – an increase of seven on five years earlier – in the world’s second largest democratic process after India’s mammoth general election. Second was the Socialist and Democratic Group (S&D), which slipped to 135 seats from 154 in 2019.
The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists won 72 seats, up from 62 five years earlier.
The far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) actually lost seats, falling to 58 seats from 72, partly because AfD was expelled from the group after its lead candidate Maximilian Krah, told an Italian newspaper that members of the Nazi SS were not necessarily criminals.
“The biggest winners of this election are the two families of the radical right,” said Pawel Zerka at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“Collectively, including non-affiliated parties like AfD and [Hungary’s] Fidesz, they seem close to surpassing the one-third seat threshold, enabling them to obstruct legislation.”
The EPP’s success will bolster the hawkish von der Leyen’s already strong chances of securing a second stint at the top of the European Commission, where she has vowed to continue with her quest to de-risk ties with China.
