President of the European commission Ursula von der Leyen has secured her position to stay president of the European Commission until 2029.
According to provisional projections from all 27 EU countries, her center-right European People’s Party (EPP) group won 184 of the 720 seats. In second place came the slightly weakened center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, with 139 lawmakers, followed by the drastically pared-back liberal Renew group, with 80 seats.
Meanwhile Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s arch-conservative Brothers of Italy group won the most votes in the European parliamentary election boosting her standing both at home and abroad.
With almost all ballots counted, Brothers of Italy won 28.8%of the vote, more than four times what it took in the last European Union election in 2019, and exceeding the 26% it secured in the 2022 national ballot, when it rose to power.
Meloni in a statement said Italy will be proud to present itself to the G7 and Europe as the strongest government of all.
