In Germany, the EP elections ended. The CDU/CSU union has scored convincing victories, while the parties in power have suffered a serious decline.
The winner of the European Parliament elections in Germany is the Union CDU/CSU. The sister parties together won, according to the first unofficial results, about 29.5% of the votes. The CDU Christian Democrats won about 23.4%, while the Christian Social CSU about 6.2%. While the biggest losers are the coalition parties in power in Germany: social democrats, environmentalists and liberals. According to the first forecasts, the social democratic party SPD won only 14.1%, while the ecologists fell to 12.1%, and this party is also the biggest loser of the elections with a minus of more than 8% compared to the last elections . Finally, the liberals won around 4.9%, which is roughly the same as in the last election. SPD candidate for the European elections Katarina Barley expressed her disappointment with the voting results. While the opposition parties in Germany demanded responsibility of the parties in power also in terms of politics within the country. SPD chairwoman Sasia Esken said that in the coming days the results will be analyzed and measures will be taken.
The rise of right-handed and left-handed
After the parties of the Union CDU/CSU, the biggest winners of these elections are the Alternative for Germany AfD, which is committed to radical changes in the European Union, as well as the leftist Movement of Sahra Wagenknecht, which was founded a few months ago. According to the first forecasts, the AfD won about 16.3%, which means that this party has taken the second place in Germany in these elections. While the Movement of Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) around 5.7%. All other parties in Germany are below 5%. But many other German parties will also have MEPs, because there is no threshold of 5% for the European Parliament elections.
The European Parliament will have 720 mandates, 96 of them from Germany. 65 million voters had the right to vote in Germany. While in the entire European Union, about 365 million voters have been invited to vote. Young people from the age of 16 also voted for the first time.
Seen at the European level, the political right wing of the current commissioner Ursula von der Leyen has won the most votes, which means that the bloc of parties of this wing can be considered as the winner of the elections at the European level.
But this does not mean that she will continue to remain in this post, because the results from many countries have to be confirmed, and very difficult negotiations between different political blocs in the European Parliament are expected./ DW