EU elections: Battle for the heart of Europe
------------------------
Voters go to the polls to elect a new parliament representing more than 500m people across 28 EU member states. Polls indicate that the dominant centrist groups will lose
their 40-year majority of seats as Eurosceptic parties gain ground
------------------------
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Current distribution

GUE/ NGL 52
S&D 186
Greens/EFA 52
ALDE  68
EPP 217
ECR 76
EFDD 41
ENF 37 
NI 21

LEFT LEANING
RIGHT LEANING

Polls suggest centre-left S&D and centre-right EPP will lose combined majority and will need support of other groups (most probably Liberals and Greens) to form majority coalition
------------------------
VOTING PHASES     00 Number of MEPs by country*

May 23 May 24 May 24, 25 May 25 May 26

Portugal 21
Spain 54
France 74
Lux. 6
Belgium 21
Germany 96
Poland 51
Austria 18
Slovenia 8
Italy 73
Croatia 11
Malta 6
Czech Rep. 21
Slovakia 13
Hungary 21
Bulgaria 17
Cyprus 6
Romania 32
Greece 21
Lithuania 11
Latvia 8
Estonia 6
Finalnd 13
Sweden 20
Denmark 13
Netherlands 26
UK 73
Ireland 11
------------------------
EPP
European People’s Party
Centre-right, pro-European Christian Democrats, dominated by Germany’s CDU/CSU
Candidate for president of European Commission Manfred Weber
------------------------
S&D
Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Centre-left, pro-European social democrats likely to be big loser, despite victory of Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE) in recent election

Frans Timmermans
------------------------
Greens / European Free Alliance
Pro-European environmentalists form parliamentary bloc with regionalist MEPs from Catalonia, Wales and Scotland
Ska Keller †
------------------------
ALDE
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Centrist and pro-European.
La République en Marche, French president Emmanuel Macron’s party, says it will ally with group but not join it
Guy Verhofstadt ‡
------------------------
GUE/NGL
European United Left/ Nordic Green Left
Far-left parties opposed to fiscal austerity, including La France Insoumise, Linke from Germany, Spain’s Podemos and Syriza from Greece
------------------------
ECR
European Conservatives and Reformists
Eurosceptic conservatives set up by UK Tories and including Poland’s Law and Justice party, Danish People’s Party (DPP) and Finns Party
------------------------
EFDD
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy
Eurosceptic group including far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Italy’s Five Star Movement and new Brexit Party in UK
------------------------
ENF
Europe of Nations and Freedom
Far-right group, including Italy’s League, France’s National Rally (NR) §, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV)
------------------------
NI – Non-Inscrits
Members not attached to any recognised party groupings
------------------------
Populist, anti-immigration parties, currently distributed between EFDD, ENF and ECR groups, intend to form new right-wing alliance after EU vote. Spearheaded by Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, European Alliance of Peoples and Nations will include League, NR, AfD, FPÖ, DPP, and Finns Party
------------------------
*751 (750 MEPs plus president). With Brexit still expected to go ahead, 27 of UK’s 73 seats will be redistributed, and total will drop from 751 to 705

†Greens co-candidates are Ska Keller from Germany and Bas Eickhout from Netherlands. EFA candidate is imprisoned Catalan leader Oriol Junqueras

‡ Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and ex-European Commissioner Emma Bonino of Italy are among seven ALDE candidates

§ Formerly known as National Front
------------------------

Sources: European Parliament, european-elections.eu, Brookings Institution, FT
Pictures: Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS