The Spanish social democrats becomes the biggest national group among the European socialists, after winning the Spanish European election on Sunday (26 May), which also sees a Catalan separatist in jail elected as MEP.
The high voter turnout in Spain was boosted by local and regional elections also held across the country.
“It is a pride, an opportunity, and a huge responsibility to be the main Social Democratic delegation in the European Parliament. We will work for a progressive, social democratic and left alternative to austerity policies”, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted on Sunday night. “A social Europe that protects and redistributes.”
Sanchez told the press after the results came out, that the priorities of the Spanish delegation in Brussels will be to use the fight against climate change and the digitalisation of the economy, as opportunities to create jobs, as well as, making gender equality a priority.
The current foreign affairs minister and former president of the European parliament, Josep Borrell, will be Sanchez’s main man in Brussels. He is expected to get a senior position in one of the European institutions.
In total, the Spanish socialists won 20 seats of Spain’s 54 seats in the European parliament, up from 14 in 2014, while conservative party Partido Popular was down from 16 to 12 seats.
The Spanish liberal party, Ciudadanos, increased its number of MEPs from two to seven, while the newly-emerged extreme right in Spain, Vox, enters the the EP for the first time with three seats.
