Centrists prevail in European Parliament elections; 8 seats for GL-PvdA, 6 for PVV

The three middle parties in the European Parliament remain the largest thanks to center-right gains, according to an improved forecast of the election results. The social Democrats and especially the Liberals lost, just like the Greens. The radical right gained a lot of ground. In the Netherlands, GroenLinks-PvdA became the biggest with 8 seats. The PVV gained the most ground, winning 6 seats.

The center-right EPP of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, remains the largest by far, according to the forecast, which includes the first provisional results. The political family of the CDA, among others, will gain about 10 MEPs. The Social Democrats surrendered 6, and the Liberals 20. Von der Leyen’s Commission has leaned on these three factions of the political center over the past five years.

The two far-right factions in the 720-member parliament are forecast to make big gains. The right-wing conservative ECR gains 3 more seats and the ID faction of Geert Wilders’ PVV and France’s Marine Le Pen 9. The growth could increase if radical right parties that do not yet belong to a faction join one of these two. Moreover, there are plans for a realignment in the hope of forming a strong far-right faction that could exert real influence. In that way, they could pull the European Commission a bit to the right.

In recent years, the Commission looked to the Greens for extra support. But according to the forecast, the Greens will lose about 20 seats.

Netherlands results

GroenLinks-PvdA has become the largest party in the elections for the European Parliament. The two left-wing parties will delegate 8 members to Brussels, 2 more than the PVV, according to a forecast based on results that municipalities have passed on to the ANP election service. After 2019’s elections, the two left-wing parties had a total of 9 seats.

Geert-Wilders’ right-wing nationalist party seemed to be heading for 7 seats in the exit poll on Thursday. But after 98 percent of votes have been counted, it appears the PVV will get one less. That seat will go to the pro-European Volt, which has won 2 places in the European Parliament.

The rest of the seat distribution corresponds to Thursday’s exit poll. VVD and CDA both lose 1 seat, coming to 4 and 3, respectively. D66 goes from 2 to 3 seats. BBB (2 seats) and NSC (1 seat) are new to the European Parliament. The PvdD and SGP both retain their seats. ChristenUnie has lost its seat and will no longer be represented in the European Parliament.