1979 European Parliament election

The 1979 European Parliament election was a series of parliamentary elections held across all 9 (at the time) European Community member states. They were the first European elections to be held, allowing citizens to elect 410 MEPs to the European Parliament, and also the first international election in history.

1979 European Parliament election

7–10 June 1979

All 410 seats to the European Parliament
206 seats needed for a majority
Turnout114,340,366 / 184,414,900 (62.0%)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Ernest Glinne Egon Klepsch James Scott-Hopkins
Party SOC EPP ED
Leader's seat Belgium (French) Germany Hereford and Worcester
Seats won
Popular vote 29,530,418 31,355,631 6,878,970
Percentage 26.62% 28.26% 6.20%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Giorgio Amendola Martin Bangemann Christian de La Malène
Party COM ELDR EPD
Leader's seat Central Italy Germany France
Seats won
Popular vote 14,908,281 11,520,616 4,114,969
Percentage 13.44% 10.38% 3.71%


President of the European Parliament

Simone Veil
ELDR

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 Treaty of Rome which established the Communities specified that the European Parliament must be elected by universal suffrage using a common voting system. The Council of the European Union was responsible for setting up the elections but it had procrastinated. As a stop-gap measure, members were appointed to the Parliament by the member states from their own national parliaments, as they had done since the Common Assembly.[1] The Parliament was unhappy with this and threatened to take the Council to the European Court of Justice. The Council eventually agreed to elections and the first European Parliament elections were held in 1979 after proposals were put forward in the mid 1970s.[1][2] The issue of a common voting method was left undecided, and even to this day the voting methods vary from member state to member state, although all have used some form of proportional representation since 1999.

Campaigns

Helmut Schmidt on the campaign trail in 1979

The campaigns varied. The former Social Democrat German Chancellor Willy Brandt took an international campaign to France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to boost the Socialist group. On the other hand, the former Prime Minister of France Jacques Chirac used the election to gauge his popularity against the then-President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, in anticipation of a presidential bid in 1981.[3]

Election

In June, the 410 members were elected by universal suffrage. At the time there were no rules on the system of election to be used. The United Kingdom used a plurality voting system for multiple small constituencies in England, Wales and Scotland but the other member states used proportional representation for fewer larger constituencies (usually the member state itself as a single constituency), albeit with different methods of seat allocation.

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 Communists and the 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: Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
Seats summary
SOC
27.56%
EPP
26.10%
ED
15.61%
COM
10.73%
LD
9.76%
EPD
5.37%
CDI
2.68%
NI
2.20%

Result by country

Group
Nation
SOC EPP ED COM LD EPD CDI NI Total
Belgium 4 PS
3 SP
7 CVP
3 PSC
2 PVV
2 PRL
1 VU 2 FDF 24
Denmark 3 A 1 D 2 C 1 SF 3 V 1 FP 4 N 16
France 22 PS+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

Simone Veil, elected as the first female President

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 President of the European Parliament: Giorgio Amendola, Italian Communist; Emma Bonino, Italian Technical Independent; Christian de La Malène, French Progressive Democrat; Simone Veil, French Liberal, and Mario Zagari, Italian Socialist.[7]

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 MEPs were full-time, energetic and more diverse. As soon as the Parliament was established the "old guard" MEPs of the larger parties sought to raise the bar at which a European Parliament political group could be formed (the status gave financial support and representation in committees). This move was quickly blocked by smaller groups working together and filibustering the proposal. The ties formed at this time laid the foundations of the Rainbow group: an alliance of left-wing and green parties[1] which later became the European Greens–European Free Alliance group.

Statistics

European Parliament election, 1979 – Electoral map at 17 July 1979
European Parliament election, 1979 - electoral map
European Parliament election, 1979 - electoral map
Key Group Description
  SOC Social Democrats
  EPP Christian Democrats
  ED Conservatives
  COM Communists and the Far Left
  LD Liberals and Liberal Democrats
  EPD National Conservatives
  CDI Heterogeneous
  NI Independents
European Parliament election, 1979 - Statistics
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 PR, except UK (not NI)
which used FPTP
Archived 25 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
European Parliament election, 1979 - Timeline
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: Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
European Parliament election, 1979 - Delegation at 17 July 1979
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 Communists and the 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: Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine 100% 410
European Parliament election, 1979 - Votes by national party at unknown 1979 date
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 PartyMovement 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' StruggleRevolutionary 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 UnionSardinian 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: , with exception of some UK results

See also

References

  1. Hoskyns, Catherine; Michael Newman (2000). Democratizing the European Union: Issues for the twenty-first Century (Perspectives on Democratization. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5666-6.
  2. Patijn Report
  3. Electing a New Parliament, Time Magazine 11 June 1979
  4. Rates of participation in European elections (1979–2004) on CVCE website
  5. Matthew Tempest and agencies Paisley to stand down as MEP, The Guardian, 19 January 2004
  6. A number of names worth remembering ..., European Voice, 26 November 1998
  7. Election of the President of the European Parliament, European Parliament
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