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.
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. 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. 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
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.Electing a New Parliament, Time Magazine 11 June 1979
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 Great Britain 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 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%.Rates of participation in European elections (1979–2004) on CVCE website
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 seatsStateSeatsStateSeats81818181252416156
+1979 European Parliament election – Groups at 17 July 1979GroupDescriptionChaired byMEPs SOCSocial DemocratsErnest Glinne113 EPPChristian DemocratsEgon Klepsch107 EDConservativesJames Scott-Hopkins64 COMCommunists and the Far LeftGiorgio Amendola44 LDLiberals and Liberal DemocratsMartin Bangemann40 EPDNational ConservativesChristian de La Malène22 CDIHeterogeneousMarco PannellaNeil BlaneyJens-Peter Bonde11 NIIndependentsnone9Total: 410
Result by country
GroupNationSOCEPPEDCOMLDEPDCDINITotalBelgium4 PS 3 SP7 CVP 3 PSC2 PVV 2 PRL1 VU2 FDF 24Denmark3 A 1 Siu1 D2 C1 SF3 V1 FP4 N 16France22 PS+MRG8 UDF19 PCF17 UDF15 RPR81Ireland4 LAB4 FG1 Ind.5 FF1 Ind. FF 15Italy9 PSI 4 PSDI29 DC 1 SVP 24 PCI3 PLI 2 PRI3 PR 1 PdUP 1 DP4 MSI81Luxembourg1 LSAP3 CSV2 DP 6Netherlands9 PvdA10 CDA4 VVD2 D6625United Kingdom17 LAB 1 SDLP60 CON 1 UUP1 SNP1 DUP81West Germany35 SPD34 CDU 8 CSU4 FDP 81Total11310764444022119410
Post election
Louise Weiss, who was born in 1893 and thus 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.Matthew Tempest and agencies Paisley to stand down as MEP, The Guardian, 19 January 2004 She dealt with the interruption swiftly.How? Did she climb the flagpole and fixed it? 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".A number of names worth remembering ..., European Voice, 26 November 1998
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.Election of the President of the European Parliament, European Parliament
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.
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.
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 which later became the European Greens–European Free Alliance group.
Statistics + European Parliament election, 1979 – Electoral map at 17 July 1979KeyGroupDescription SOCSocial Democrats EPPChristian Democrats EDConservatives COMCommunists and the Far Left LDLiberals and Liberal Democrats EPDNational Conservatives CDIHeterogeneous NIIndependents
+ European Parliament election, 1979 - StatisticsAreaDatesSeatsElectorateTurnoutPreviousNextElection methodsSourcesEuropean Community(EC-9)7, 10 June 1979410191,783,52863%Inaugural1981All PR, except UK (not NI)which used FPTP
+ European Parliament election, 1979 - TimelineAppointed Parliament 1979 ElectionRegrouping First ParliamentGroups Pre-elections13 February 1978 ChangeResults7 July ChangeResults17 JulyNewGroupsFirst session17 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 NI3+2124 +11 11 CDI 11 -15 9 NI 9Total 196 +214 410 +0 410Total 410
+ European Parliament election, 1979 - Delegation at 17 July 1979GroupDescriptionDetails%MEPs SOCSocial DemocratsWest Germany 35, Belgium 7, Denmark 4, France 22, Ireland 4, Italy 13, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 9, UK 18 28%113 EPPChristian DemocratsWest Germany 42, Belgium 10, France 8, Ireland 4, Italy 30, Luxembourg 3, Netherlands 1026%107 EDConservativesDenmark 3, UK 6116%64 COMCommunists and the Far LeftDenmark 1, France 19, Italy 2411%44 LDLiberals and Liberal DemocratsWest Germany 4, Belgium 4, Denmark 3, France 17, Ireland 1, Italy 5, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 410%40 EPDNational ConservativesDenmark 1, France 15, Ireland 5, UK 15%22 CDIHeterogeneousBelgium 1, Denmark 4, Ireland 1, Italy 53%11 NIIndependentsBelgium 2, Italy 4, Netherlands 2, UK 12%9