Socialist Party PSOE wins Spain's European elections

Source:Xinhua Published: 2019/5/27 11:18:13

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) won the European elections held on Sunday with 32.82 percent of the ballots, according to data published by the Spanish Interior Ministry, with over 96 percent of the votes counted.

The PSOE won 20 of the 54 MEPs that Spain has in European Parliament.

This means the PSOE had six more seats than in the May 2014 election when the Socialists won 23.01 percent of the vote and 14 seats.

Sunday also saw the Socialists win 8 more seats than the right wing People's Party (PP), who ranked second in the election, but saw their vote share plunge from 26.09 percent in May 2014 to 20.11 percent on Sunday as support for right wing parties was split into three.

The PP lost votes to Albert Rivera's center-right party Ciudadanos, which gained 12.22 percent of the votes and won 7 seats, while the extreme right wing Vox claimed 6.22 percent of the votes to enter European Parliament for the first time with 3 seats.

Left wing party Unidos-Podemos saw their vote share rise from 7.98 percent to 10.07 percent and the number of representatives grew from 5 to 6.

Catalan, basque and galician independentists party Ahora Republicas claimed 3 seats with 5.70 percent of the votes and former catalan independentist leader Carlos Puigdemont party Junts Per Catalunya won 2 seats with 4.65 percent of the ballots.

Regionalist group Coalicion por una Europa Solidaria (CEUS) gained 2.68 percent of the votes and 1 seat.

This results come a month after socialist leader and Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez claimed victory in the general election held on April 28th.

May 26th also sees elections for numerous City Halls (including Madrid and Barcelona) and 12 of Spain's 17 autonomous communities.

Despite the proximity of these four important elections, Spain saw a higher voter turnout in the European parliament elections this time than in 2014.

Turnout rose by 18.53 percent and went from 45.83 percent to 64.36 percent.

The European elections kept the trend of the general elections, where the PSOE also won a comfortable victory and surpassed PP, Ciudadanos, Unidas Podemos and VOX.

The head of the socialist list for Europeans is current Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who is well known for his pro-European character.



Posted in: EUROPE

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