1979 European Parliament election
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All 410 seats to the European Parliament 206 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 114,340,366 / 184,414,900 (62.0%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Post-election composition of each member state's delegation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1979 European Parliament election was a series of parliamentary elections held across all 9 (at the time)
Seats in the Parliament had been allocated to the states according to population, and in some cases were divided into constituencies, but members sat according to political groups.
Background
The
Campaigns
The campaigns varied. The former
Election
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European Union portal |
In June, the 410
The electorate took little interest[3] but average voter turnout was 63%. The lowest turn out was in the United Kingdom with 32.2%: all others were above 50% apart from Denmark. Aside from Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory, the highest turnout was in Italy with 84.9%.[4]
Result
Socialist parties working together under the Europe-wide Confederation of Socialist Parties won the most seats: the resultant Socialist group had 113 MEPs. Christian Democrat parties united within the pan-European European People's Party came second, with the resultant group having 107 MEPs. The largest third force was the Conservative European Democrats with 64, followed by Communists with 44. The Liberal Democrats had 40 seats, although their candidate was elected as President.
The groups formed were loose coalitions based on the groups founded in previous years, but they soon became the basis for modern European political parties.
National distribution of seats | |||
---|---|---|---|
State | Seats | State | Seats |
France | 81 | West Germany | 81 |
Italy | 81 | United Kingdom | 81 |
Netherlands | 25 | Belgium | 24 |
Denmark | 16 | Ireland | 15 |
Luxembourg | 6 |
1979 European Parliament election – Final results at 17 July 1979 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Group | Description | Chaired by | MEPs | |||
SOC | Social Democrats
|
Ernest Glinne | 113 | |||
EPP | Christian Democrats
|
Egon Klepsch | 107 | |||
ED | Conservatives | James Scott-Hopkins | 64 | |||
COM | Far Left
|
Giorgio Amendola | 44 | |||
LD
|
Liberals and Liberal Democrats | Martin Bangemann | 40 | |||
EPD | National Conservatives | Christian de La Malène | 22 | |||
CDI | Heterogeneous | Marco Pannella Neil Blaney Jens-Peter Bonde |
11 | |||
NI | Independents | none | 9 | Total: 410 | Sources: [1] [2] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine[3][4] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine |
Result by country
Group Nation |
SOC
|
EPP
|
ED | COM | LD
|
EPD | CDI | NI | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Belgium | 4 SP
|
7 PSC
|
2 PVV 2 PRL |
1 VU | 2 FDF
|
24 | |||
Denmark | 3 A 1 Siu |
1 D | 2 C
|
1 SF
|
3 V | 1 FP | 4 N | 16 | |
France | 22 MRG
|
8 UDF | 19 PCF | 17 UDF | 15 RPR | 81 | |||
Ireland | 4 LAB | 4 FG | 1 Ind. | 5 FF | 1 Ind. | 15 | |||
Italy | 9 PSI 4 PSDI |
29 DC 1 SVP |
24 PCI | 3 PLI 2 PRI |
3 PR 1 PdUP 1 DP |
4 MSI | 81 | ||
Luxembourg | 1 LSAP | 3 CSV | 2 DP | 6 | |||||
Netherlands | 9 PvdA | 10 CDA | 4 VVD | 2 D66 | 25 | ||||
United Kingdom | 17 LAB 1 SDLP |
60 CON 1 UUP |
1 SNP | 1 DUP | 81 | ||||
West Germany | 35 SPD | 34 CDU 8 CSU |
4 FDP | 81 | |||||
Total | 113 | 107 | 64 | 44 | 40 | 22 | 11 | 9 | 410 |
Post election
Louise Weiss, who was 86 at the time, was found to be Parliament's oldest member and hence presided over the chamber while the election of the President took place (July 1979). Before that could happen however, she immediately had to deal with Ian Paisley MEP who, in the first speech of the session, protested that the British flag outside the building was flying upside down.[5] She dealt with the interruption swiftly. The confrontation was seen as one of her finest hours and she later confided that, as a grandmother, she was used to dealing with "recalcitrant youngsters".[6]
There were five candidates for
In the first ballot, Veil secured 183 of the 380 votes cast – eight short of the absolute majority needed. The next closest contender was Zagari with 118 votes, then Amendola with 44, de la Malène with 26 and Bonino with 9. Bonino and de la Malène dropped out and Veil secured an absolute majority in the second ballot with 192 of the 377 votes cast (Zagari gained 128 and Amendola 47). Veil was elected as the first President of the elected Parliament, and first female President of the Parliament since it was founded in 1952.[7]
The following were elected as Vice-Presidents: Danielle De March, Basil de Ferranti, Bruno Friedrich, Guido Gonella, Gérard Jacquet, Hans Katzer, Poul Møller, Pierre Pflimlin, Bríd Rodgers, Marcel Albert Vandewiele, Anne Vondeling and Mario Zagari.[7]
Previously the Parliament was a weak consultative assembly, the members of which were part-time. With the elections the new body of
Statistics
Key | Group | Description |
---|---|---|
SOC | Social Democrats
| |
EPP | Christian Democrats
| |
ED | Conservatives | |
COM | Far Left
| |
LD | Liberals and Liberal Democrats | |
EPD | National Conservatives | |
CDI | Heterogeneous | |
NI | Independents |
Area | Dates | Seats | Electorate | Turnout | Previous | Next | Election methods | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
European Community (EC-9) |
7, 10 June 1979 |
410 | 191,783,528 | 63% | Inaugural | 1981
|
All FPTP
|
[5] Archived 25 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine[6] [7] |
Appointed Parliament | 1979 Election | Regrouping | First Parliament | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Groups | Pre-elections 13 February 1978 |
Change | Results 7 July |
Change | Results 17 July |
New Groups |
First session 17 July | ||
SOC | 63 | +48 | 111 | +2 | 113 | SOC | 113 | ||
CD | 52 | +54 | 106 | +1 | 107 | EPP | 107 | ||
C | 18 | +45 | 63 | +1 | 64 | ED | 64 | ||
COM | 17 | +27 | 44 | +0 | 44 | COM | 44 | ||
LD | 24 | +17 | 41 | -1 | 40 | LD | 40 | ||
EPD | 19 | +2 | 21 | +1 | 22 | EPD | 22 | ||
NI | 3 | +21 | 24 | +11 | 11 | CDI | 11 | ||
-15 | 9 | NI | 9 | ||||||
Total | 196 | +214 | 410 | +0 | 410 | Total | 410 | ||
Sources: [8] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine [9] [10] [11] [12] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine |
Group | Description | Details | % | MEPs | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SOC | Social Democrats
|
West Germany 35, Belgium 7, Denmark 4, France 22, Ireland 4, Italy 13, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 9, UK 18 | 28% | 113 | |
EPP | Christian Democrats
|
West Germany 42, Belgium 10, France 8, Ireland 4, Italy 30, Luxembourg 3, Netherlands 10 | 26% | 107 | |
ED | Conservatives | Denmark 3, UK 61 | 16% | 64 | |
COM | Far Left
|
Denmark 1, France 19, Italy 24 | 11% | 44 | |
LD | Liberals and Liberal Democrats | West Germany 4, Belgium 4, Denmark 3, France 17, Ireland 1, Italy 5, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 4 | 10% | 40 | |
EPD | National Conservatives | Denmark 1, France 15, Ireland 5, UK 1 | 5% | 22 | |
CDI | Heterogeneous | Belgium 1, Denmark 4, Ireland 1, Italy 5 | 3% | 11 | |
NI | Independents | Belgium 2, Italy 4, Netherlands 2, UK 1 | 2% | 9 | |
Sources: [13] [14] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine [15] [16] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine | 100% | 410 |
Country | Party | Abbr. | Group | Votes | % (nat.) | Seats |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Italy | Christian Democracy | DC | EPP | 12,753,708 | 36.45 | 29 |
West Germany | Social Democratic Party of Germany | SPD | SOC | 11,370,045 | 40.83 | 35 |
West Germany | Christian Democratic Union
|
CDU | EPP | 10,883,085 | 39.08 | 34 |
Italy | Italian Communist Party | PCI | COM | 10,345,284 | 29.57 | 24 |
United Kingdom | Conservative Party | CP | ED | 6,508,493 | 48.40 | 60 |
France | Union for French Democracy | UDF | LD | 5,666,984 | 27.87 | 25 |
France | Socialist Party – Movement of Left Radicals | PS-MRG | SOC | 4,763,026 | 23.43 | 22 |
United Kingdom | Labour Party | LP | SOC | 4,253,207 | 31.63 | 17 |
France | French Communist Party | PCF | COM | 4,153,710 | 20.43 | 19 |
Italy | Italian Socialist Party | PSI | SOC | 3,858,295 | 11.03 | 9 |
France | Rally for the Republic | RPR | EPD | 3,301,980 | 16.24 | 15 |
West Germany | Christian Social Union of Bavaria
|
CSU | EPP | 2,817,120 | 10.12 | 8 |
Netherlands | Christian Democratic Appeal | CDA | EPP | 2,017,743 | 35.60 | 10 |
Italy | Italian Social Movement | MSI | NI | 1,907,880 | 5.45 | 4 |
Netherlands | Labour Party | PvdA | SOC | 1,722,240 | 30.39 | 9 |
United Kingdom | Liberal Party | L | 1,691,531 | 12.58 | ||
West Germany | Free Democratic Party | FDP | LD | 1,662,621 | 5.97 | 4 |
Belgium | Christian People's Party
|
CVP | EPP | 1,607,941 | 29.54 | 7 |
Italy | Italian Democratic Socialist Party | PSDI | SOC | 1,512,425 | 4.32 | 4 |
Italy | Radical Party | PR | CDI | 1,283,512 | 3.67 | 3 |
Italy | Italian Liberal Party | PLI | LD | 1,270,152 | 3.63 | 3 |
Netherlands | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | VVD | LD | 914,787 | 16.14 | 4 |
Italy | Italian Republican Party | PRI | LD | 895,558 | 2.56 | 2 |
West Germany | The Greens
|
GRÜNE | 893,683 | 3.21 | ||
France | Ecological Europe
|
VERTS | 891,683 | 4.39 | ||
Belgium | Socialist Party
|
SP | SOC | 698,889 | 12.84 | 3 |
France | Workers' Struggle – Revolutionary Communist League
|
LO-LCR | 623,663 | 3.07 | ||
Belgium | Socialist Party
|
PS | SOC | 575,824 | 10.58 | 4 |
Belgium | Party for Freedom and Progress | PVV | LD | 512,363 | 9.41 | 2 |
Netherlands | Democracy 66 | D66 | NI | 511,967 | 9.03 | 2 |
Ireland | Fianna Fáil | FF | EPD | 464,451 | 34.68 | 5 |
Belgium | Christian Social Party
|
PSC | EPP | 445,912 | 8.19 | 3 |
Ireland | Fine Gael | FG | EPP | 443,652 | 33.13 | 4 |
Belgium | Democratic Front of Francophones
|
FDF | NI | 414,603 | 7.62 | 2 |
Italy | Proletarian Unity Party | PdUP | CDI | 406,007 | 1.16 | 1 |
Denmark | Social Democrats | S | SOC | 382,487 | 21.80 | 3 |
France | 5th List: Employment. Equality. Europe | 5-EEE | 373,259 | 1.84 | ||
Belgium | Liberal Reformist Party | PRL | LD | 372,904 | 6.85 | 2 |
Denmark | People's Movement against the EU | FolkeB | CDI | 365,760 | 20.85 | 4 |
Luxembourg | Christian Social People's Party | CSV | EPP | 352,296 | 36.12 | 3 |
Belgium | People's Union | VU | CDI | 324,540 | 5.96 | 1 |
France | Inter-Professional Union for an Independent France in a Solidary Europe |
UDIP-FIDES | 290,555 | 1.43 | ||
Luxembourg | Democratic Party | DP | LD | 274,307 | 28.12 | 2 |
France | Party of New Forces | PFN | 265,911 | 1.31 | ||
Denmark | Venstre | V | LD | 252,767 | 14.41 | 3 |
Italy | Proletarian Democracy | DP | CDI | 251,927 | 0.72 | 1 |
United Kingdom | Scottish National Party | SNP | EPD | 247,836 | 1.84 | 1 |
Denmark | Conservative People's Party | KF | EPP | 245,309 | 13.98 | 2 |
Luxembourg | Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party | LSAP | SOC | 211,106 | 21.64 | 1 |
Italy | South Tyrolean People's Party | SVP | EPP | 196,277 | 0.56 | 1 |
Ireland | Irish Labour Party | ILP | SOC | 193,898 | 14.48 | 4 |
Ireland | Independents | Ind. | NI | 189,499 | 14.15 | 2 |
United Kingdom | Democratic Unionist Party | DUP | NI | 170,688 | 1.27 | 1 |
Italy | Valdostan Union – Sardinian Action Party | UV-PSd'Az | 166,194 | 0.47 | ||
Belgium | Communist Party of Belgium | PCB-KPB | 145,796 | 2.68 | ||
Italy | National Democracy | DN | 142,354 | 0.41 | ||
United Kingdom | Social Democratic and Labour Party | SDLP | SOC | 140,622 | 1.05 | 1 |
Netherlands | Reformed Political Party | SGP | 126,412 | 2.23 | ||
United Kingdom | Ulster Unionist Party | UUP | ED | 125,169 | 0.93 | 1 |
United Kingdom | Independents | Ind. | 112,366 | N/A | ||
West Germany | German Communist Party | DKP | 112,055 | 0.40 | ||
Belgium | Confederated Ecologists | ECOLO | 107,833 | 1.98 | ||
Denmark | Centre Democrats | CD | ED | 107,790 | 6.14 | 1 |
Denmark | Progressive Party
|
FP | EPD | 100,702 | 5.74 | 1 |
Netherlands | Communist Party of the Netherlands | CPN | 97,343 | 1.72 | ||
Netherlands | Pacifist Socialist Party | PSP | 97,243 | 1.72 | ||
Netherlands | Political Party of Radicals | PPR | 92,055 | 1.62 | ||
United Kingdom | Plaid Cymru | PC | 83,399 | 0.62 | ||
Denmark | Socialist People's Party
|
SF | COM | 81,991 | 4.67 | 1 |
Belgium | Another way of Living
|
AGALEV | 77,986 | 1.43 | ||
Luxembourg | Social Democratic Party | SDP | 68,289 | 7.00 | ||
Netherlands | Reformed Political League | GPV | 62,610 | 1.10 | ||
Denmark | Justice League | DR | 60,954 | 3.47 | ||
Denmark | Left Socialists | VS | 59,379 | 3.38 | ||
Denmark | Radical Left | RV | 56,944 | 3.25 | ||
Luxembourg | Communist Party of Luxembourg | KPL | 48,813 | 5.00 | ||
Belgium | All Power to the Workers | TPO-AMADA | 45,423 | 0.83 | ||
West Germany | Christian Bavarian People's Party | CBV | 45,311 | 0.16 | ||
Ireland | Sinn Féin – The Workers Party | SFWP | 43,942 | 3.28 | ||
United Kingdom | Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | A | 39,026 | 0.29 | ||
Belgium | Flemish People's Party | VVP | 34,706 | 0.64 | ||
West Germany | European Workers Party | EAP | 31,822 | 0.11 | ||
West Germany | German Centre Party | ZENTRUM | 31,367 | 0.11 | ||
Denmark | Christian People's Party
|
KrF | 30,985 | 1.77 | ||
United Kingdom | United Against the Common Market | UACM | 27,506 | N/A | ||
Netherlands | Leschot List | LL | 24,903 | 0.44 | ||
Belgium | E-NON | E-NON | 22,187 | 0.41 | ||
United Kingdom | Ecology Party | EP | 17,953 | 0.13 | ||
Belgium | PLW-PLE | PLW-PLE | 17,566 | 0.32 | ||
Belgium | Workers Revolutionary League
|
LRT-RAL | 16,911 | 0.31 | ||
United Kingdom | Mebyon Kernow | MK | 10,205 | N/A | ||
Luxembourg | Alternative List | AL | 9,845 | 1.01 | ||
Belgium | PPB | PPB | 9,704 | 0.18 | ||
Belgium | PFU | PFU | 7,273 | 0.13 | ||
United Kingdom | United Labour Party | ULP | 6,122 | 1.1 | ||
Luxembourg | Liberal Party | LP | 5,610 | 0.58 | ||
Luxembourg | Revolutionary Socialist Party | RSP | 5,085 | 0.52 | ||
Belgium | POE | POE | 4,617 | 0.08 | ||
United Kingdom | Workers' Party | WP | 4,418 | 0.8 | ||
United Kingdom | Unionist Party of Northern Ireland | UPNI | 3,712 | 0.6 | ||
Ireland | CDI | CDI | 3,630 | 0.27 | ||
United Kingdom | International Marxist Group | IMG | 1,635 | N/A | ||
United Kingdom | Ulster Liberal Party | ULP | 932 | 0.2 | ||
United Kingdom | EFP | EFP | 497 | N/A | ||
France | Europe – Self-Management List | PSU | 382 | 0.00 | ||
France | Regions-Europe | RE | 337 | 0.00 | ||
Source: [17], with exception of some UK results |
See also
History of the European Union |
---|
European Union portal |
- Members of the European Parliament 1979–1984
- History of the European Communities (1973–93)
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7190-5666-6.
- ^ Patijn Report
- ^ Time Magazine11 June 1979
- ^ Rates of participation in European elections (1979–2004) on CVCE website
- ^ Matthew Tempest and agencies Paisley to stand down as MEP, The Guardian, 19 January 2004
- European Voice, 26 November 1998
- ^ a b c Election of the President of the European Parliament, European Parliament
External links
- The election of the Members of the European Parliament CVCE
- Full Election Details Europe Politique (in French)
- Speech by Simone Veil during the first session CVCE