This is how the European Parliament was formed

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The elections to the European Parliament, besides registering a significant increase of voters with respect to the elections of 2014, give as a great winner to the European People's Party

A few minutes ago, 100% of the votes counted in this parliamentary election were published. The great news, in addition to the results that gave as winners to the PP and the social democratic party S & D, although they lost several seats with respect to the last elections, was the increase of almost ten points in the continental voting compared to 2014. While in the past elections the commission did not exceed 42%, for this occasion the participation in the polls of the 27 countries belonging to the European Union reached 51%, being the highest vote in twenty years of European parliamentary elections.

Leer en español: Así quedó conformado el Parlamento europeo

In Germany, it rose eleven points compared to the previous elections reaching 59%. In France, with a percentage of participation between 51 and 54%, it rose from seven to ten points compared to 2014, the highest rate since 1994. Several other countries were on the same line: around 35% in Spain compared to 24% in 2014; 15% in Poland compared to just over 7%; or 17% in Hungary versus 11.5% in the last European elections, according to French radio RFI. There were also reports of more votes than in the past elections in Romania, Cyprus, Slovenia, Denmark, Croatia or Estonia. This fact of greater affluence in the polls broke a lousy run of 36 years of participation to the loss since from the first European elections of 1979 the percentage of voters has not done more descend.

The 751 chairs are distributed, taking into account the population of each country, but applying the principle of "degressive proportionality" that the Treaty of Lisbon sets. With this system, the large countries are prevented from being overrepresented, and the small ones can have more decision power by having at least six seats. Germany (96), France (74), Italy and the United Kingdom (73) and Spain (54) are the countries that contribute more deputies. Malta, Cyprus, and Luxembourg (6) are the least represented.

Among the parties that gained a lot of ground concerning the configuration of the previous Parliament, are the right-wing movements, the eurosceptics – those who strongly disagree with the policies of the European Union, even in participating in this organization – the populists and the ecologists, better known as the greens. The latter gave a great surprise, as they doubled their power in Parliament, reaching almost 10% of chairs of the 751 available. Many say that this victory of the greens is in part thanks to the student mobilization led by 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg, whose peaceful resistance to governments and multinationals that pollute the planet has mobilized tens of thousands of students and activists around the world.

And the Brexit?

Although the final departure from the United Kingdom was expected on March 29, this was not fulfilled, so British citizens had the opportunity to participate in the parliamentary elections. However, when the departure of the British island, scheduled for October 31 of this year, finally takes place, the British deputies will leave the hemicycle, which will have 705 seats. What happens with the 73 deputies chosen? Of these, 46 will be reserved for future extensions. The remaining 27 will be divided among several countries, which will contribute the deputies following the order of the most voted. Spain and France are the ones that benefit most from this, with five more seats each. Italy and the Netherlands will have three more; Ireland, two, and nine countries (Poland, Romania, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia, and Estonia) will have one more, according to El País.

LatinAmerican Post | Pedro Vergara

Translated from "Así quedó conformado el Parlamento europeo"