2024 EU election explained:

2024 EU election explained:

Right wing politics takes over the EU with just over 45% of voters voting for a right-wing group. This is a sharp contrast from the UK political climate as poll predict that over 62% of voters in the UK will vote for either a centre or left-wing party. There are 7 main political groups in the EU, these groups are made up of nation parties from EU member states. A group must contain at least 23 parties. Here is the breakdown of the 2024 EU election.

The largest of these groups, the EPP (European Peoples Party) is a Christian democratic party that aligns centre right. The main parties in the group are the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) from Germany, Angela Merkel’s former party, now run by Friedrich Merz; and Poland’s Civic Coalition, led by Donald Tusk. The headline policies of the EPP are more support for Ukraine, more EU defence spending and defence union including anti-missile technology, and support processing migrant applications in third countries. (Similar to the Rwanda bill in the UK, and the Italy-Albania deal.) The EPP won 190 seats out of 720 and won around 26% of the vote share. This is a massive increase from the last EU parliament election in 2019 as the EPP gained 14 seats.

The second largest group continues to be the S&D (Socialists and Democrats), as they lost only 3 seats since the last election. The S&D is a centre left group that advocates for a defence union but is not clear on the specifics. Their immigration policy, although strict, does not support the use of third countries in processing migrant applications. Climate change is one of their stronger policies as they are committed to climate neutral by 2050. Even though the EPP is also set on this goal, the EPP have not got it as high on their political agenda as the S&D. the most notable parties in the S&D are France’s socialist party, Spain’s workers party, and Italy’s Democratic party. This time around the S&D won 136 seats making it the second largest group, and ahead of all the other right-wing groups apart from the EPP.

The second largest right-wing group, the ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists), are a right-wing group that has a tough stance on immigration as they also support third country migrant processing. The ECR however, does not support the climate neutral plan or a defence union and are also against EU enlargement. The ECR and the ID (Identity and Democracy) groups are the only groups in favour of economic deregulation. Georga Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is the most well-known party in the group along with the Polish Law and Justice party and VOX from Spain. The most Controversial news from the ECR group has been the relationship between Georga Meloni and the leader of National Rally in France, Marine Le’Pen. Le’Pen has in the past been in favour of joining forces with Meloni, which if where to happen, the political climate of Europe would almost certainly shift to the right for years to come. Recently however, this looks unlikely as National Rally are in the ID group and many in the party feel that Meloni is too mainstream, even though both parties have historic ties to fascism, although this does not mean either party is Fascist as both parties have put a lot of work into distancing themselves from their problematic pasts.

Renew Europe is the third largest group and is well known for being centrist and liberal. The most well-known party in the group is Macron’s Renaissance party. Renew is a bit of an outlier as it supports 3^rd party migration policies even though it is a centre liberal party. Renew also is in favour of climate neutral 2050, the removal of the Veto, and EU expansion. Renew lost a significant number of seats as they are now on 80 seats, compared to 102 seats, resulting in a 22-seat loss. This loss was so bad that in France, Macron has called a snap election, with polling taking place this year on the 30^th of June and the 7^th of July, just before the Olympics in Paris. Macron’s presidency is under threat from National Rally as they are polling around 30%, compared to Macron’s 15%.

The ID group are the most right-wing group in the EU parliament they made massive gains in the election with an increase of 9 seats putting their total up from 49 to 58. This puts them as the 5^th largest group in the EU parliament. The ID group has many well-known parties such as: National Rally in France, the Italian Lega, PVV led by Geert wilders in the Netherlands, and Vlaamms Belang in Belgium (A Flemish nationalist party that has gained the media spotlight recently). The AFD (A German right-wing party that came second in Germany losing to the CDU) recently got kicked out the group for being too radical. The AFD stand independent of the group in the EU parliament along with 89 non-aligned parties. The ID group is Eurosceptic and very strongly against irregular migration, the EU’s environment target, EU regulations, and EU expansion. They also believe that defence should be managed by member states individually rather than by the EU.

The Greens group won 52 seats however they lost 19 seats compared to 2019. The Greens push for environmental changes, most notable of which is their plan to be carbon neutral by 2040. The Greens also support removing the veto and have a more relaxed immigration policy. They also claim to be the group of social justice. Notable parties in the group include France’s Ecologists party.

The Left is the smallest group out of the 7 an has 39 seats compared to 35 in 2019. They are mainly made up of socialist parties such as Die Linke in Germany. The group’s main policies include: less restrictive immigration policy, cuts to defence spending and carbon neutral by 2035.

The left-wing is growing out of fashion in Europe, as the right-wing is more popular than ever. However perhaps this is not because people are righter wing; maybe the real reason behind the rise of the right in Europe is due to a growing sense of dissatisfaction with mainstream politics. Many young people feel as though their views are not being represented in politics, which could be a reason why many people have turned to anti-establishment parties, as they feel that changing the establishment could benefit them more than the current status quo. Another reason for this rightward shift is that many people see multiculturalism as a negative thing in their lives. As some studies show, in Europe, there is an overrepresentation of asylum seekers in crime figures and there is a weak positive corelation between immigration and crime. However, in America there was very little evidence that showed a positive corelation between crime and immigration in the US. 24% of Europeans see immigration as the most important issue in Europe and has consistently been in the top 4 for most important issues in Europe.

Written by Ian Lorimer.