EPP Pulls Ahead of S&D Alliance on EP Elections – Poll

The new European Parliament will have a group of right-wing nationalists around Marine Le Pen of the French National Front and Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom.

These are the results of the latest forecast which is part of the PollWatch2014 project funded by the European Parliament.

European People's Party (EPP) has pulled further ahead of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the latest forecast, and now stands on 216 seats compared to 205 for S&D. In the latest of opinion polls, S&D parties have lost ground in France and Poland, while EPP parties have gained in Spain, Romania and Poland.

Where the other groups are concerned, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)

remained third, ahead of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) in fourth, while the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Greens/European Free Alliance and the right-wing Europe of Freedom and Democracy are now neck-and-neck for fifth place.

According to the current forecast, parties currently affiliated to ECR will win seats in only 6 member states, which is one state short of the minimum needed to form a group. However, several other parties might join ECR, such as the nationalist New Flemish Alliance from Belgium or the True Finns.

Meanwhile, the forecast shows that the 7 parties who are expected to join Le Pen and Wilders in a new group (the National Front in France, the right-wing PVV in the Netherlands, the federalist Lega Nord in Italy, FP? in Austria, the Flemish nationalists VB in Belgium, SD in Sweden, and SNS in Slovakia) will win at least 38 seats. As a result, there could be three groups to the right of the EPP with approximately 40 seats each.

But, it is still not clear where the popular activist, comedian and blogger Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement (M5S) will sit. Standing on 21 seats in PollWatch's latest forecast, many groups will be eager to attract his MEPs.

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