As the dust settles following a mammoth weekend of voting across the EU's 27 Member States, almost all the votes are in, with an estimated 50.8% of eligible Europeans having paid a visit to the polling booths.
Provisional and final results are in for all but one EU Member State, as counting centres in Ireland are still sorting through stacks of paper ballots to elect its 14 MEPs.
The latest projection published by the European Parliament on Friday shows that the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) will hold more than a quarter (186) of the 720 seats in the next Parliament, having grown its headcount by ten compared to the outgoing legislature.
Data: European Parliament. Credit: The Brussels Times
The centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) remains the second largest party with just under a fifth of seats in the next Parliament (134), having shrunk by just two MEPs.
It was a tough weekend for centre-left group Renew Europe, which has lost 23 seats according to latest projections on Friday, shrinking to 79 members in the next Parliament – although it remains the third largest political force at EU level.
Reassembling the 'grand coalition'
Lead Commission President candidate for EPP Ursula von der Leyen has indicated that she hopes to reassemble the "grand coalition" between EPP, S&D and Renew. She said on Sunday night that she would reach out to both parties.
Some 361 seats are needed to form an absolute majority in the European Parliament. If EPP, S&D and Renew band together, they will have a narrow margin with 401 seats.
Projections are still showing that the Parliament's two far-right parties have surpassed the Greens in size, with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) gaining four seats to 73, and the Identity and Democracy (ID) group growing by nine seats to 58.
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Meanwhile the Greens/EFA group has been hit hard with a loss of 18 seats, as a total of 53 MEPs are projected to take seats.
The Left has lost just one seat as the group is projected to have 36 MEPs in the next legislature.
Among members not allied to any group (NI), it is projected that there will be 46 re-elected members in the next Parliament, and 55 newly elected to their seats.
