Biggest EU Parliament groups recovering but expected to take big hits in EU election polls
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Over the last two months, the two biggest groups in European Parliament — the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) — have seen an upward trend, according to Europe Elects, though they are still projected to take major hits in the May elections.
Europe Elects, which provides poll aggregation and election analysis, said the two main factors for their recent, though mild, recovery is Brexit uncertainty and a reduced interest in immigration.
This recovery has been attributed to what’s happening with Brexit and the immigration topic becoming less important, so right-wing parties, which earlier were seeing an upward trend, now have fewer issues to mobilise with.
Despite some recovery by the EPP and S&D group in recent months, both are projected to take big hits in the May election when compared to the 2014 results, with the centre-right group forecast to lose 37 seats while S&D are predicted to drop 56 seats, according to data from Europe Elects.
ALDE has also been gaining voter support because of recent national events and politics, particularly in France and Romania which is predicted to join the liberals ALDE group and is included as such in this projection data is slowly recovering in approval ratings following President Emmanuel Macron’s listening tour after months of yellow-vest protests, while in Romania voters are turning to ALDE as the ruling Social Democrats party is plagued by corruption allegations.
The liberal group is projected to gain 39 seats should En Marche proceed with ALDE.
