Christian party loses one seat in EP elections
Not all outspoken Christian candidates were able to retain their seats in the EP elections 2024. Photo EPA, Olivier Hoslet
European Union
The ECPM (European Christian Political Movement) will move on with four MEPs in the coming mandate of the European Parliament. The party had five seats just before the elections.
Two of the five candidates lost their seats. The Dutch Anja Haga could not win enough votes for her ChristenUnie. From 1979 until 2019, her party always campaigned in a combined list with the Reformed SGP party. Because of this disconnection, it was more challenging to gather the votes.
SGP’s Bert-Jan Ruissen was able to retain his seat, together with his German colleague Helmut Geuking and the Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes.
In Hungary, ECPM’s Márton Gyöngyösi from Hungary could not get re-elected. This morning, he said this had to do with the specific Hungarian political field.
Much attention went to the internal battles around Viktor Orban’s Fidesz and its challenger Tisza led by Péter Magyar. This newcomer party was able to grab 30 per cent of the votes. That could explain the loss of Gyöngyösi’s Jobbik party.
On the other hand, the ECPM won one seat in Latvia. The party Latvija Pirmaja Vieta (Latvia first) won one seat and will be represented by Vilis Kristopans.
That means that the ECPM group will start with four MEPs in the new mandate. The hope is that this number will grow soon after the new parliament is sworn in.
The picture is less clear among convinced Christians in other parties on this first day after the elections.
From Spain, Margarita de la Pisa says on Monday morning that she is re-elected. This mother of nine was on the list for Vox and belongs to the EP to the ECR group (European Conservatives and Reformists).
The Croat Ladislav Ilcic, who also belongs to the ECR, was not able to be re-elected. “There are always uphills and downhills”, he said on the phone on Monday morning. “As a Christian, you don’t have to worry about the future.”
The general picture for this year's EU election result is that the Christian Democratic EPP (European People's Party) remains the largest group in the EP. In this group, some MEPs are active with an outspoken Christians programme. The group is led by the German mother of seven, Ursula von der Leyen. It is likely that she will remain as President of the European Commission.
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