Held in the trough of the financial crisis, the election punished governing socialists rather than incumbents generally: the EPP won decisively while the S&D fell to its worst result yet. David Cameron's Conservatives walked out of the EPP to found the ECR, and Jerzy Buzek of Poland became the first president of the chamber from the former eastern bloc.
President of the European Parliament before
Hans-Gert Pöttering
EPP
President of the European Parliament after
Jerzy Buzek
EPP
Largest group
EPP
265 of 736 seats
Turnout
43.2%
across 27 member states
The Parliament it elected
EPP
European People's Party · 36.0%
265
MEPs
S&D
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats · 25.0%
183
MEPs
ALDE
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe · 11.4%
84
MEPs
G-EFA
Greens–European Free Alliance · 7.5%
55
MEPs
ECR
European Conservatives and Reformists · 7.3%
54
MEPs
EUL-NGL
European United Left–Nordic Green Left · 4.8%
35
MEPs
EFD
Europe of Freedom and Democracy · 4.3%
32
MEPs
NI
Non-Inscrits
28
MEPs
Share of chamber
EPP
European People's Party
Joseph Daul
265
36.0%
S&D
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Martin Schulz
183
25.0%
ALDE
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Graham Watson
84
11.4%
G-EFA
Greens–European Free Alliance
Daniel Cohn-Bendit
55
7.5%
ECR
European Conservatives and Reformists
—
54
7.3%
EUL-NGL
European United Left–Nordic Green Left
Francis Wurtz
35
4.8%
EFD
Europe of Freedom and Democracy
Nigel Farage
32
4.3%
NI
Non-Inscrits
—
28
—
Group composition at or immediately after the Parliament's constitutive session; groups form and dissolve between elections, so totals elsewhere may differ. Vote shares are EU-wide shares for the parties that formed each group, where the source reports them.
The result by member state
How each of the 27 member states' MEPs divided among the political groups, with the national parties behind each delegation. Countries are grouped by the European group each national party sat with before the election, as the source presents them; the source table sums to 737 against the chamber's 736 full members.