1989 European Parliament election

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All 518 seats to the European Parliament 260 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	58.5% 2.5 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jean-Pierre Cot Egon Klepsch Valéry Giscard d’Estaing Party SOC EPP ELDR Leader's seat France Germany France Last election 130 110 31 Seats won 180* 121* 49* Seat change 50 11 18
* The number of seats was increased from 434 to 518 – so this is a nominal figure
President of the European Parliament before election Henry Plumb ED President of the European Parliament after election Enrique Barón Crespo PES

The 1989 European Parliament election was a held on June Wednesday 15 to Sunday 18 across the 12 European Union member state in June 1989. It was the third European Parliament election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the same time as the other members they joined in 1986. Overall turnout dropped to 59%.

Electoral system

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v t e

There was no single voting system for all member states but each of them adopted its own method, established by national law.

The United Kingdom used a one-round (first-past-the-post) system of 78 constituencies in England, Wales and Scotland, while in Northern Ireland 3 proportional seats were allocated. Belgium, Ireland and Italy used a proportional system with subdivision of the territory into constituencies. Denmark, France, West Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain used a single national proportional system, although in the case of West Germany the three seats for the West Berlin area were not directly elected but were chosen by the Berlin House of Representatives, given the particular status of the city.

Seat changes

These were the first elections Portugal and Spain took part in with the other states. Spain was allocated 60 seats and Portugal was allocated 24; the number of seats for the other states remained the same, raising the total number of seats from 434 to 518.

National distribution of seats
State	Seats		State	Seats
West Germany	81		Belgium	24
United Kingdom	81		Portugal	24
France	81		Greece	24
Italy	81		Denmark	16
Spain	60		Ireland	15
Netherlands	25		Luxembourg	6

Results

European Parliament election, 1989 - Final results at 25 July 1989
Group		Description	Chaired by	MEPs
	SOC	Social Democrats	Jean-Pierre Cot	180
	EPP	Christian Democrats	Egon Klepsch	121
	LDR	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	49
	EUL	Communists and the Far Left	Luigi Alberto Colajanni	42
	LU		René-Emile Piquet
	ED	Conservatives	Christopher Prout	34
	G	Greens	Maria Amélia Santos	30
	EDA	National Conservatives	Christian de La Malène	20
	DR	Far-Right Nationalists	Jean-Marie Le Pen	17
	RBW	Regionalists	Jaak Vandemeulebroucke	13
	NI	Independents	none	12	Total: 518	Sources: [1][2]

The Socialists held their third consecutive victory, rising to 180 seats (166 pre-election), with the People's Party managing to win only 8 extra seats. However, the European Democrats had a massive loss of 32 of the 66 seats, knocking them from third to sixth largest party. The liberals, who had already risen one place with the byelections in Spain and Portugal earlier, gained an extra seat, holding their new-found third place with both the Rainbow and Communist groups splitting post-election.

Results by country

Statistics