On June 8, at a press conference in Brussels, the preliminary results of the European Parliament elections that ended the day before were announced. According to calculations, right-wing parties are significantly ahead of the socialists. The elections saw a record low voter turnout - 43.39% compared to 45.4% in the last elections in 2004.

According to preliminary data, 267 of the 736 seats in the European Parliament will be occupied by the conservative centrist European People's Party (EPP). The Socialists can count on 159 seats. 81 seats will go to the Liberals and 51 seats to representatives of the Green Party. The remaining seats in parliament went to radical and far-right parties. The head of the Socialist faction, Martin Schulz, called last night's voting “sad and difficult” for all socialists and social democrats.

Let us remind you that the procedure for elections to the European Parliament started on June 4 in the UK and the Netherlands, on June 5 elections were held in Ireland and the Czech Republic, on June 6 in Latvia, Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia. The remaining 19 EU member states voted on June 7. Over the course of four days, citizens voted for their national parties, whose representatives, following the election results, will unite into party alliances, forming factions in the future European Parliament.

The closest attention was focused on countries such as France and Germany, which account for the largest number of seats in the European Parliament. Thus, in Germany, supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel received almost 38% of votes in their support, while only 20.8% of voters cast their votes for the socialists. A slightly smaller gap between the right and the socialists was recorded in France: President Nicolas Sarkozy's Popular Movement received about 28% of the vote, the Socialist Party gained about 16%.

The lowest turnout at an election since 1979 at the organization's headquarters is attributed to voter indifference to voting due to the economic crisis. According to many Europeans, EU countries should take measures to overcome the global economic crisis separately, rather than together.

Right-wingers lead in European Parliament elections