European Union Parliament elections: Prime Minister’s party wins Poland race | world

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition party confirmed its favoritism and took first place in Poland’s European Parliament elections, with 37.1% of the vote, according to official results from the Electoral Commission published by local media.

The European Parliament is the body that approves or rejects EU legislation and makes decisions on the bloc’s budget. It also supervises the European Commission, the executive body responsible for drafting laws.

Elections were held in each of the bloc’s 27 countries. Each country elects its own members of the European Parliament: Germany has the largest number of seats, 96; Malta and Luxembourg are the smallest, with six. There will be 720 members of the European Parliament.

The second largest election in the world

The European Parliament elections are the second largest elections in the world, after the general elections in India. See some highlights below:

• There are about 450 million people living in European Union countries.
• In only four out of 27 countries is voting compulsory: Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Greece. As for the rest, it is optional.
• 720 members of the European Parliament will be elected.
• There are polling sites extending from the Arctic Circle to the borders of Africa and Asia. There is a vote, for example, at the Portuguese Consulate in São Paulo.

For a long time, the European Parliament was occupied by two types of politicians: veterans of their countries and people who were at the beginning of their careers.

This began to change with the responsibilities that the European Union began to accumulate, such as setting the banking and agricultural rules for the bloc’s countries, in addition to the EU budget.

Voters are also becoming more interested: in 2019, an attendance rate of 50.66% was considered a success. More than 60% of people are expected to vote this year.

Von der Leyen will try to stay in power

The current president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who is campaigning to remain in office, belongs to the European People’s Party, the largest party in Parliament.

To do this, von der Leyen would need 361 of the Commission’s 720 votes in parliament.

In the current legislature, the European People’s Party leads a heterogeneous coalition, which includes socialist groups and parties of economically liberal politicians as well as environmentalists.

This situation must change, because economic liberals and environmentalists may lose their seats.

The current leader may have to negotiate a deal with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party, which Von der Leyen’s current allies consider extremist.