1989 European Parliament election

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%.

1989 European Parliament election

← 1984 15–18 June 1989 1994 →

All 518 seats to the European Parliament
260 seats needed for a majority
Turnout58.5% Decrease 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 Increase50 Increase11 Increase18

Post-election composition of each member state's delegation
* 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

Electoral system

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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

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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

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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.

Seats summary
SOC
34.75%
EPP
23.36%
LDR
9.46%
EULLU
8.11%
ED
6.56%
G
5.79%
EDA
3.86%
DR
3.28%
RBW
2.51%
NI
2.32%

Results by country

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Group
Nation
SOC EPP LDR ED EDA G EUL DR LU RBW NI Total
Belgium 5 PS
3 SP
5 CVP
2 PSC
2 PVV
2 PRL
2 Ecolo
1 Agalev
1 VB 1 VU 24
Denmark 4 A 2 D 3 V 2 C 1 SF 4 N 16
France 22 PS 4 CDS
1 CNI
1 Ind.
12 UDF
1 UDF diss.
12 RPR
1 CNI
8 Verts 10 FN 7 PCF 1 UPC 1 Ind. 81
Greece 9 PASOK 10 ND 1 DIANA 4 Synaspismos 24
Ireland 1 LAB 4 FG 1 PDs
1 Ind.
6 FF 1 WPI 1 Ind. 15
Italy 12 PSI
2 PSDI
26 DC
1 SVP
3 PRI 3 LV
2 VA
1 DP
1 LA
22 PCI 2 LL
1 PSd'Az
4 MSI
1 Ind.
81
Luxembourg 2 LSAP 3 CSV 1 DP 6
Netherlands 8 PvdA 10 CDA 3 VVD 1 D66 2 Regenboog 1 SGP 25
Portugal 8 PS 3 CDS–PP 9 PSD 1 CDU (PEV) 3 CDU (PCP) 24
Spain 27 PSOE 15 PP
1 CiU (UDC)
5 CDS
1 CiU (CDC)
1 IP 4 IU 1 PA
1 PEP
2 Ruiz-Mateos
1 CN
1 HB
60
United Kingdom 45 LAB
1 SDLP
1 UUP 32 CON 1 SNP 1 DUP 81
West Germany 31 SPD 25 CDU
7 CSU
4 FDP 7 Grünen 6 REP 81
Total 180 121 49 34 20 28 31 17 14 13 12 518

Statistics

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European Parliament election, 1989 - Statistics
Area Dates Seats Electorate Turnout Previous Next Election methods Sources
European Community
(EC-12)
15-18 June
1989
518 244,951,379 58.5% 1984 1994 All PR, except UK (not NI)
which used FPTP
[3] Archived 25 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine [4][5] Archived 4 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine [6]
European Parliament election, 1989 - Timeline
Second Parliament 1989 Election and Regrouping Third Parliament
Groups Pre-elections
Last session
Change Results
July 25
New
Groups
First session
July 25
  SOC 166 +14 180   SOC 180
  EPP 112 +9 121   EPP 121
  LDR 46 +3 49   LDR 49
  RBW 20 +23 13   RBW 13
30   G 30
  COM 48 -6 28   EUL 28
14   LU 14
  ED 66 -32 34   ED 34
  EDA 30 -10 20   EDA 20
  ER 16 +1 17   DR 17
  NI 14 -2 12   NI 12
Total 518 0 518 Total 518
Sources [7] [8] [9] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine [10] [11]
European Parliament election, 1989 - Delegation at 25 July 1989
Group Description Details % MEPs
  SOC Social Democrats West Germany 31, Belgium 8, Denmark 4, France 22, Ireland 1, Italy 14, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 8, UK 46, Greece 9, Spain 27, Portugal 8 35% 180
  EPP Christian Democrats West Germany 32, Belgium 7, Denmark 2, France 6, Ireland 4, Italy 27, Luxembourg 3, Netherlands 10, UK 1, Greece 10, Spain 16, Portugal 3 23% 121
  LDR Liberals and Liberal Democrats West Germany 4, Belgium 4, Denmark 3, France 13, Ireland 2, Italy 3, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 4, Spain 6, Portugal 9 9% 49
  EUL & LU Communists and the Far Left Denmark 1, France 7, Ireland 1, Italy 22, Greece 4, Spain 4, Portugal 3 8% 42 (28+14)
  ED Conservatives Denmark 2, UK 32 7% 34
  G Greens West Germany 8, Belgium 3, France 8, Italy 7, Netherlands 2, Spain 1, Portugal 1 6% 30
  EDA National Conservatives France 13, Ireland 6, Greece 1 4% 20
  DR Far-Right Nationalists West Germany 6, Belgium 1, France 10 3% 17
  RBW Regionalists Belgium 1, Denmark 4, France 1, Ireland 1, Italy 3, UK 1, Spain 2 3% 13
  NI Independents France 1, Italy 5, Netherlands 1, UK 1, Spain 4 2% 12
Sources: [12] [13] [14] Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine [15] 100% 518
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