Who, when and how Europeans are going to vote: the keys to the most important elections in EU history | European elections 2024 | News

More than 360 million European citizens are called to elect, between 6 and 9 June, the 720 men and women who will form the European Parliament over the next five years, presented as the world’s only multinational parliamentary assembly elected by direct suffrage. This year’s election will be the tenth to elect the most democratic branch of the EU’s institutions, starting in 1979. The DNA of the community bloc is in the process of changing in the face of geopolitical challenges in the world, with enormous external challenges – such as Russia’s war against Ukraine – and internal – such as the projected rise of political formations with eurosceptic overtones that promise to destroy the current model. Amid this difficult situation, the EU has made a major effort to encourage voting and achieve high participation. The challenge is to maintain or exceed the 50.6% participation recorded in 2019, the highest since 1994.

When do you vote in the European elections?

It depends on each member state. Most countries vote on Sunday, June 9, but since organizing the election is the responsibility of each country, there are some countries where voting takes place over the next few days or even several days. For example, in Italy voting takes place over two days, June 8 and 9, in the Czech Republic on June 7 and 8. In the Netherlands voting will take place on Thursday, June 6. Ireland will vote the next day, while Latvia, Malta and Slovakia will vote on the 8th.

Elections will be held on June 9 in the rest of the countries including Spain.

What will be voted on between 6 and 9 June?

In these tenuous elections to the European Parliament, the 720 MEPs from the 27 Member States that make up the European Union are elected. The first elections took place in 1979 and, over time and various treaties, the European Parliament has gained powers.

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Who can vote?

Unlike national elections, the voting age has been raised in several countries for European elections: in Germany, Austria, Belgium and Malta, 16-year-olds will now be able to go to the polls on this occasion, while in Greece those who have reached the age of 17 will do so. In the remaining Member States, the minimum voting age is 18. Citizens of a European country living in another country can choose whether to vote for the list of their country of origin or that of their place of residence, although they cannot do both.

Is the European Commission elected in elections?

No, the person who will chair the European Commission is chosen by the heads of state and government, taking into account the electoral result. However, the European Parliament can veto the appointment, as the chosen candidate must be subject to ratification by MEPs. Nor are the members of the College of Commissioners elected in direct elections. These are nominated by each government. However, it is once again up to the European Parliament to provide the necessary confidence to those elected. The functions of the European Parliament also include approving the EU budget and monitoring how the money is spent.

Do all countries have the same number of MEPs?

No, the largest country in the EU, Germany, will elect 96 MPs; the smallest (Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta), six. The distribution is calculated based on population. However, there are corrections to this basic criterion, since strictly speaking, the youngest will be much less represented. Thus, according to the population of each country, on January 1 this year there will be one German MEP per approximately 900,000 citizens. Malta, on the other hand, will have one for every 90,000. Spain, on the other hand, will have one MP for every 788,285 inhabitants.

These numbers cannot be used to estimate how many votes a party needs to get to be represented, as these figures also include citizens without the right to vote (minors). This will depend on participation in the election and will be much lower.

Who are the main candidates?

The most famous face of these elections is, without doubt, the current president of the European Commission, the German Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen. But neither she nor the socialist leader, the Luxembourger Nicolas Schmidt, or the left-winger, the Austrian Walter Bayer, are eligible to become MEPs. They are the candidates of their political families for the presidency of the next College of Commissioners, but they do not stand in direct election.

The headliners chosen by each party in each country are included in the electoral lists. In the Spanish case, the third vice president of the government, Teresa Ribera, heads the PSOE; the current head of the Spanish Popular Delegation in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, leads the PP; Estrella Galán is Sumar’s number one, Jorge Buxadé, of Vox, Irene Montero, of Podemos; and Diana Riba, from Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, would be the first choice in the list bringing together ERC, Bildu and BNG.

How many political parties are there in the European Parliament?

It is not easy to answer this question until the elections take place. But you can try with the formation of the current legislature. There are now 217 parties divided into seven political groups. Each country sends delegations with several parties. For example, in 2019, Unidas Podemos had representatives from Podemos, Izquierda Unida or Initiative for Catalonia. Another similar example is seen in 2024 with Sumar, which groups candidates from IU, Compromís or Comuns.

How many political groups are there?

This figure is much more stable. Since 2004, the different European families have been organized into seven political groups in the European Parliament. In the last one, from highest to lowest, they have been: the European People’s Group (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the liberals of Renew, the Greens, Identity and Democracy (ID), the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and La Left. There is also a group of non-members that includes, among others, MPs from Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, after they were expelled from the Popular Group.

What do opinion polls say?

All known polls agree that the winner will be the European People’s Party, with a result similar to the one achieved in 2019 (178 MPs) or a slight lead, which can be explained by the increase in the number of MEPs in the Chamber, which goes from 705 to 720 seats. The Socialists and Democrats will also achieve the same number of representatives as five years ago, although in this case a slight decrease is observed, from 140 to 138. But this does not mean that they will be the second largest group in the European Parliament. This depends on the result of the far-right groups, which are now divided in two parts. If the rise of the two groups (Identity and Democracy, and the European Conservatives and Reformists) is confirmed and they unite, as proposed by the extreme-right French leader Marine Le Pen, second place could suit them.

The sharpest declines are expected among liberal groups and the Greens. For the most left-wing group in the Chamber (La Izquierda), polls point to a slight gain on 2019 results.

When will the results be known?

Although the votes will begin on June 6, it will not be until the night of June 9 when the configuration of the new European Parliament will begin to be projected and estimated. The European Parliament plans to present a first set of projections by country from 6:00 pm (Spanish peninsular time) on Sunday. The first projection of the composition of the new Parliament is scheduled for between 8:15 pm and 8:30 pm. It will be around midnight, in any case not earlier than 11:15 pm, when the first provisional results from some Member States will begin to arrive as well as the projections from others. To this will be added the second estimate of the distribution of seats. The last updated projection will be around 1:00 am and, already on Monday the 10th, all the provisional results should be known.