After four days of voting, the preliminary results of the European Union (EU) parliamentary elections have started to come in. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ultra-conservative Brothers of Italy are on course to win the most votes, according to early counts in Italy.
Last week, EU Parliament elections took place over four days. Sunday was the last day of voting. This time around 350 million voters from 21 countries voted in the EU Parliament elections.
The results of the preliminary counting started yesterday after the polling.
While the early results brought good news for Meloni’s party, the sky fell for the parties of French President Emmanuel Macron and Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croix. Crowe tearfully announced his resignation shortly after realizing the party’s plight.
And French President Machon announced early elections. France’s Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally has been a huge success, even though Makhon’s party is in shambles.
Based on preliminary counts in Italy, preliminary results show Meloni’s Brothers of Italy is set to win the most votes this time with 28.3 percent, nearly four times the number of votes the party received last time (2019).
In the 2022 national elections, the Brothers of Italy came to power with 26 percent of the vote. After the Brothers of Italy, the opposition center-right Democratic Party was second with 23.7 percent of the vote and another opposition party, the Five Star Movement, was third with 10.5 percent.
After learning that her party was set to receive the most votes in the EU Parliament elections, X Meloni took to social media to post a photo of herself with a victory sign, writing, ‘Thank you!’
Meloni’s success in the EU suggests that the acceptance of Meloni’s ruling coalition government has increased in the country compared to 2022. In 2022 support for the Coalition was slightly lower at 43 per cent. Now that has increased to over 46 percent. Meloni formed a coalition government with moderate-right to hard-right parties.
Senator Licia Ronzulli, leader of the coalition partner Forza Italia party, said, “I think this vote is definitely going to strengthen the government.”
The results of the polls so far in the EU Parliament elections suggest that not only Meloni’s party, but also the hard-right parties are going to make big gains this time, which could add uncertainty to the future political trajectory of Europe.
Around the world, the EU Parliament is called the mirror of European nationhood. Individuals from any party cannot directly contest EU Parliament elections. There is only team-based competition. Each party participating in the elections draws up a list of potential members of the EU Parliament. Any party gets membership according to the proportion of votes they get.
Member quotas for the EU Parliament are determined in proportion to the countries’ population. Accordingly, the country of 83.8 million inhabitants of Germany has the highest number of seats in proportion to the population of 96. Members of the EU Parliament are elected for five years.