| Left | G/EFA | S&D | RE | EPP | ECR | PfE | ESN | NI | other | |
| EP2024 | 46 | 53 | 136 | 77 | 188 | 78 | 84 | 25 | 33 | – |
| EP today | 46 | 53 | 136 | 75 | 187 | 79 | 84 | 28 | 32 | – |
| Jan. 26 (B) | 53 | 37 | 122 | 71 | 177 | 80 | 104 | 38 | 27 | 11 |
| Feb. 26 (B) | 54 | 37 | 124 | 64 | 175 | 83 | 104 | 37 | 24 | 18 |
| Feb. 26 (D) | 55 | 37 | 126 | 65 | 176 | 90 | 104 | 37 | 30 | – |




- Baseline scenario,
as of 23 February 2026.
(Click to enlarge.)






- Dynamic scenario,
as of 23 February 2026.
(Click to enlarge.)
In recent years, the political wind in the EU has rarely blown to the left: Since the 2024 election, there has not been a single seat projection in which none of the three left-of-centre political groups – the social democratic S&D, the green G/EFA, and the left – has suffered losses. Taken together, they have lost almost a tenth of their seats, slipping from 235 seats in the election (already a historic low) to 212 in the January 2026 projection.
In this downward trend, the current projection offers a silver lining for the left-of-centre parties. Both S&D and the Left are gaining slightly, while the Greens/EFA are holding steady at their January levels. Admittedly, the changes are far too small to speak of a trend reversal. But after the slight setbacks for the far-right parties in the November and January projections, this recovery of the left-wing parties is another small sign that the shift to the right in European polls has recently lost momentum.
Silver lining for left-wing parties
The biggest loser of the recent weeks, however, is not the far right, which has actually gained slightly compared to the January projection. Instead, it is the Liberals who are suffering heavy losses: With only 64 seats, they have fallen to their lowest level since the beginning of regular European Parliament seat projections in the summer of 2014. Also the centre-right EPP group has lost some ground, achieving its worst result of this legislative term.
Examining the survey data in detail reveals that, just as in January, there are hardly any dramatic changes in any member state – with one exception which will be discussed below. Most individual national parties are experiencing only minor shifts, causing them to rise or fall by a maximum of one or two seats in the projection. For the parliamentary groups, this means in some cases that gains in one member state will offset losses in another; in other cases, however, several small changes into the same direction can add up to a larger shift. Only time can tell if such a development will then consolidate into a broader Europe-wide trend.
Mixed bag for the EPP
In the case of the EPP, polls in recent weeks have certainly shown a mixed bag of successes and setbacks. On the one hand, the Czech STAN party has gained ground, significantly increasing its popularity since entering opposition after the 2025 national parliamentary election. Also Hungary’s Tisza party has seen a slight increase in support at the start of the campaign for the Hungarian parliamentary election next April – although, as already described here in January, Hungarian polls are heavily influenced by the political bias of the respective polling institutes and are therefore only of limited reliability.
However, these gains are offset by losses for the EPP in various other member states – such as Bulgaria, where there is also an upcoming national parliamentary election, in Portugal, where the candidate of the ruling EPP member party did not even make it to the runoff in the national presidential election in January, and in Romania. In total, the EPP threfore suffers a slight setback. It now stands at 175 seats (–2 compared to the January projection), equalling its worst result since the 2024 European election.
S&D recovery
For the S&D group, recent polls have also yielded mixed results. The Social Democrats have strengthened their position as the strongest national force in Denmark and Finland, and have also made gains in Cyprus. The Spanish PSOE, on the other hand, has recently performed more weakly, and the Bulgarian BSP would even fail to reach the national threshold according to current polls.
Still, the S&D manages a slight overall gain to 124 seats (+2). While this remains one of the group’s worst ever results in a long-term comparison, it is at least a small improvement after the sequence of historic lows of recent months.
Liberals in a twelve-year low
Also among the liberal RE group, the losses suffered by individual national parties in recent weeks have been minor. Its member parties in Spain (PNV), Austria (Neos), Bulgaria (PP), Slovakia (PS), Slovenia (GS), Ireland (FF) and Denmark (RV) have only slipped slightly in the polls – enough for all of them to lose just one seat in the projection.
However, these losses for the Liberals are hardly matched by gains anywhere else. Only the Danish Moderaterne have improved their standing in the polls so that they would now win a seat in the European Parliament again.
In total, the RE group therefore experiences a substantial decline and drops to 64 seats (–7), its lowest level in at least twelve years. Since autumn 2022 alone, the Liberals have lost more than a third of their projected seats.
Greens stable, Left minimally up
For the Greens/EFA group, slight gains in Italy and Latvia are offset by slight losses in Czechia and Denmark. In the projection, the Greens therefore remain unchanged at 37 seats (±0) for the third time in a row. After heavy losses in the first few months following the 2024 election, they now appear to have stabilised, albeit at a low level.
The changes in the Left group are also minor. On the one hand, Ireland’s SF has suffered slight losses but remains the strongest national party. On the other hand, Slovenia’s Levica and Cyprus’s AKEL are both gaining ground in the run-up to their respective national parliamentary elections (which will take place in Slovenia in March and in Cyprus in May). Overall, the Left group has made slight gains and now stands at 54 seats (+1).
ECR gaining, ESN losing ground
At the right-wing end of the political spectrum, the ECR group is among the winners of recent weeks. Its member parties are gaining ground in Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia, among other countries. This is partly offset by slight losses in Poland and Finland. Overall, however, the ECR group rises to 83 seats (+3) in the projection, putting it close to its previous high of 85 seats in September 2025.
The PfE group, which stands even further to the right than the ECR and has replaced it as the strongest far-right group since the 2024 election, remains unchanged overall. Among others, Spain’s Vox and Portugal’s Chega have continued their rise in recent weeks. The Dutch PVV, on the other hand, is losing support after fierce internal conflicts. These changes balance each other out, meaning that the PfE groups continues to stand at 104 seats (±0) in the projection – just below its peak last autumn.
Finally, the extremist ESN group suffers slight losses. While its Dutch member party FvD benefits from the weakness of the PVV, Germany’s AfD and Bulgaria’s Vǎzraždane experience setbacks. Overall, the ESN now has 37 seats (–1) in the projection, putting it back on a par with the Greens/EFA.
Non-attached and “other” parties
Meanwhile, the group of non-attached parties has suffered clear losses, particularly affecting Slovakia’s ruling left-conservative party, Hlas, and the liberal-populist DPS-NN from Bulgaria. Germany’s left-conservative BSW also fell slightly; and the populist ADK party from Cyprus, founded only a few months ago by YouTuber and current MEP Fidías Panayiótou, would now fail to enter the European Parliament altogether. Conversely, the Spanish far-right party SALF is back in the tableau. Overall, the non-attached parties would now hold 24 seats (–3).
Finally, the “other” parties (which are not represented in the European Parliament so far and cannot be clearly assigned to any political group) have made the biggest gains among all groups in recent weeks and now hold 18 seats (+7). The Dutch far-right party JA21, the Irish centre-left party SD and the Slovenian centre-right party Demokrati have all improved their standing in the polls. Conversely, the agrarian-conservative ZZS and the Russian minority party Stabilitātei from Latvia, as well as the right-wing populist MECh from Bulgaria, all of which were included in the tableau in January, would now fail to win a seat.
Strong newcomer from Bulgaria
However, the biggest growth is being experienced by a party that has not even been officially established yet: the party of Rumen Radev, who has resigned as Bulgarian president in January. Radev is a national populist who in recent times has spoken out against military aid for Ukraine and criticised Bulgaria for adopting the euro without holding a referendum.
He was elected president twice as an independent candidate: in 2016, when he was proposed by the centre-left BSP (S&D), and in 2021, when he also had the backing of the liberal PP (RE). However, he has since fallen out with both parties. With Boyko Borisov, the leader of the conservative GERB (EPP) party, he has been in long-running feuds anyway. Nevertheless, Radev’s presidency has been one of the few institutional continuities in Bulgaria’s otherwise very unstable political landscape in recent years.
Will the biggest fish among the “others” remain non-attached?
Ahead of the early national parliamentary election scheduled for April – the eighth in five years – Radev has now resigned from office in order to become actively involved in day-to-day politics with his own party. For administrative reasons, this party will probably not be founded until after the election; in fact, it does not even have a name yet. Nevertheless, it is already included in all Bulgarian polls – and is currently in first place by a wide margin.
If such a Radev formation were to enter the European Parliament one day, it would be by far the biggest fish among the “other” parties. However, it is dubious whether any political group would be willing to accept it: When it comes to potential allies, Radev’s Eurosceptic and Russophile profile seems to bear the closest resemblance to that of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose Smer party is also non-attached in the European Parliament.
The overview
The following table breaks down the projected distribution of seats by individual national parties. The table follows the baseline scenario, in which each national party is attributed to its current parliamentary group (or to the parliamentary group of its European political party) and parties without a clear attribution are labelled as “other”.
In contrast, the dynamic scenario of the seat projection assigns each “other” party to the parliamentary group to which it is politically closest. In addition, the dynamic scenario also takes into account likely future group changes of parties that are already represented in the Parliament. In the table, the changes from the baseline to the dynamic scenario are indicated by coloured text and in the mouse-over text. The mouse-over text also lists any alternative groups that the party in question might plausibly join.
In the absence of pan-European election polls, the projection is based on an aggregation of national polls and election results from all member states. The specific data basis for each country is explained in the small print below the table. For more information on European parties and political groups in the European Parliament, click here.
| Left | G/EFA | S&D | RE | EPP | ECR | PfE | ESN | NI | other | |
| EP2024 | 46 | 53 | 136 | 77 | 188 | 78 | 84 | 25 | 33 | – |
| EP today | 46 | 53 | 136 | 75 | 187 | 79 | 84 | 28 | 32 | – |
| Jan. 26 (B) | 53 | 37 | 122 | 71 | 177 | 80 | 104 | 38 | 27 | 11 |
| Feb. 26 (B) | 54 | 37 | 124 | 64 | 175 | 83 | 104 | 37 | 24 | 18 |
| Feb. 26 (D) | 55 | 37 | 126 | 65 | 176 | 90 | 104 | 37 | 30 | – |
| Left | G/EFA | S&D | RE | EPP | ECR | PfE | ESN | NI | other | |
| DE | 10 Linke 1 Tier |
10 Grüne 3 Volt |
13 SPD |
3 FDP 3 FW |
23 Union 1 Familie 1 ÖDP |
22 AfD | 3 BSW 2 Partei 1 PdF |
|||
| FR | 8 LFI |
|
13 PS | 14 RE | 12 LR | 34 RN |
|
|||
| IT |
11 M5S 2 SI |
4 EV | 20 PD |
|
6 FI 1 SVP |
26 FdI | 6 Lega |
|
||
| ES | 2 Pod 2 Sumar 1 Bildu |
2 Sumar 1 ERC |
17 PSOE |
|
22 PP | 13 Vox |
1 SALF
|
|||
| PL | 4 Lewica |
|
18 KO |
14 PiS | 6 Konf | 6 Konf | 5 KKP | |||
| RO | 8 PSD |
3 USR 1 PMP |
6 PNL |
15 AUR |
|
|
||||
| NL |
|
2 GL |
3 PvdA |
7 D66 5 VVD |
4 CDA |
|
4 PVV | 3 FvD |
3 JA21 |
|
| BE | 3 PTB |
1 Groen |
1 Vooruit 3 PS |
1 Anders 2 MR 1 LE |
2 CD&V 1 CSP |
4 N-VA | 3 VB | |||
| CZ | 1 Piráti |
4 STAN 1 TOP09 |
4 ODS | 9 ANO |
2 SPD |
|
||||
| EL | 1 Syriza | 3 PASOK |
|
7 ND | 3 EL | 1 FL |
3 PE 2 KKE |
1 MéRA |
||
| HU |
|
|
11 TISZA |
9 Fidesz | 1 MHM |
|
||||
| PT |
|
1 Livre |
6 PS | 2 IL | 6 AD | 6 Chega | ||||
| SE | 2 V | 1 MP | 7 S |
1 C |
4 M 1 KD |
5 SD | ||||
| AT | 2 Grüne | 4 SPÖ | 1 Neos | 4 ÖVP | 9 FPÖ |
|
||||
| BG |
|
2 PP |
4 GERB 1 DB |
|
1 V | 2 DPS-NN |
7 Radew |
|||
| DK | 1 Enhl. | 2 SF | 4 S |
2 V 1 M |
2 LA 1 K |
1 DD |
1 DF |
|||
| SK | 3 PS |
2 Slov 1 KDH 1 D |
2 SaS
|
2 REP |
3 Smer 1 Hlas |
|||||
| FI | 2 Vas | 1 Vihreät | 5 SDP |
2 Kesk |
3 Kok |
2 PS | ||||
| IE |
5 SF |
|
|
3 FF |
4 FG | 2 SD | ||||
| HR | 2 Možemo | 4 SDP | 5 HDZ |
|
1 Most |
|||||
| LT | 2 DSVL | 2 LSDP |
1 LS |
2 TS-LKD |
2 LVŽS |
|
2 NA |
|||
| LV | 2 Prog |
|
|
2 JV |
2 NA 1 LRA |
2 LPV |
|
|||
| SI |
1 Levica |
|
1 SD | 2 GS |
3 SDS 1 N.Si |
1 D |
||||
| EE | 1 SDE | 1 RE 1 KE |
2 Isamaa | 1 KE | 1 EKRE | |||||
| CY | 2 AKEL |
1 DIKO |
1 DISY | 1 ELAM |
|
1 ALMA | ||||
| LU |
|
1 LSAP | 2 DP | 2 CSV | 1 ADR | |||||
| MT | 3 PL | 3 PN |
| Left | G/EFA | S&D | RE | EPP | ECR | PfE | ESN | NI | other | |
| 26-02-23 | 54 | 37 | 124 | 64 | 175 | 83 | 104 | 37 | 24 | 18 |
| 26-01-07 | 53 | 37 | 122 | 71 | 177 | 80 | 104 | 38 | 27 | 11 |
| 25-11-10 | 51 | 37 | 124 | 71 | 175 | 81 | 105 | 39 | 24 | 13 |
| 25-09-01 | 55 | 40 | 123 | 66 | 176 | 85 | 105 | 37 | 21 | 12 |
| 25-07-01 | 51 | 44 | 124 | 73 | 181 | 80 | 99 | 36 | 20 | 12 |
| 25-05-19 | 49 | 40 | 130 | 76 | 179 | 79 | 100 | 35 | 23 | 9 |
| 25-03-24 | 52 | 41 | 131 | 73 | 177 | 79 | 99 | 33 | 24 | 11 |
| 25-01-27 | 48 | 43 | 130 | 81 | 185 | 77 | 93 | 29 | 24 | 10 |
| 24-12-02 | 43 | 41 | 131 | 83 | 186 | 73 | 100 | 27 | 24 | 12 |
| 24-10-07 | 44 | 41 | 136 | 79 | 186 | 74 | 96 | 26 | 29 | 9 |
| 24-08-12 | 44 | 45 | 137 | 77 | 191 | 73 | 88 | 25 | 31 | 9 |
| EP 2024 | 46 | 53 | 136 | 77 | 188 | 78 | 84 | 25 | 33 | – |
| Left | G/EFA | S&D | RE | EPP | ECR | PfE | ESN | NI | other | |
| 26-02-23 | 55 | 37 | 126 | 65 | 176 | 90 | 104 | 37 | 30 | – |
| 26-01-07 | 54 | 37 | 123 | 73 | 177 | 86 | 106 | 38 | 26 | – |
| 25-11-10 | 52 | 37 | 126 | 73 | 175 | 86 | 109 | 39 | 23 | – |
| 25-09-01 | 56 | 40 | 125 | 68 | 177 | 89 | 107 | 37 | 21 | – |
| 25-07-01 | 52 | 44 | 126 | 75 | 181 | 84 | 101 | 37 | 20 | – |
| 25-05-19 | 49 | 40 | 132 | 78 | 179 | 82 | 101 | 36 | 23 | – |
| 25-03-24 | 52 | 41 | 132 | 74 | 179 | 82 | 103 | 33 | 24 | – |
| 25-01-27 | 49 | 43 | 132 | 82 | 185 | 80 | 96 | 29 | 24 | – |
| 24-12-02 | 43 | 42 | 133 | 82 | 186 | 77 | 104 | 27 | 26 | – |
| 24-10-07 | 46 | 41 | 137 | 79 | 187 | 77 | 97 | 26 | 30 | – |
| 24-08-12 | 45 | 46 | 138 | 78 | 191 | 76 | 89 | 25 | 32 | – |
| EP 2024 | 46 | 53 | 136 | 77 | 188 | 78 | 84 | 25 | 33 | – |
The “EP 2024” line indicates the distribution of seats as of July 16, 2024, when the European Parliament was constituted following the election in June 2019.
Overviews of older seat projections from previous legislative terms can be found here (2014-2019) and here (2019-2024).
Baseline scenario: The projection assigns parties that are already represented in the European Parliament to their current parliamentary group. National parties that are not currently represented in the European Parliament but belong to a European political party, are attributed to the parliamentary group of that party. In cases where the members of a national electoral list are expected to split up and join different political groups after the election, the projection uses the allocation that seems most plausible in each case (see below). Parties for which the allocation to a specific parliamentary group is unclear are classified as “other” in the baseline scenario.
According to the rules of procedure of the European Parliament, at least 23 MEPs from at least a quarter of the member states (i.e. 7 out of 27) are required to form a parliamentary group. Groupings that do not meet these conditions would therefore have to win over additional MEPs in order to be able to constitute themselves as a parliamentary group.
Dynamic scenario: In the dynamic scenario, all “other” parties are assigned to an already existing parliamentary group (or to the group of non-attached members). In addition, the dynamic scenario also takes into account other group changes that appear politically plausible, even if the respective parties have not yet been publicly announced them. To highlight these changes from the baseline scenario, parties that are assigned a different parliamentary group in the dynamic scenario are marked in the colour of that group. Moreover, the name of the group appears in the mouse-over text. Since the attributions in the dynamic scenario are partly based on a subjective assessment of the political orientation and strategy of the parties, they can be quite uncertain in detail. From an overall perspective, however, the dynamic scenario may be closer to the real distribution of seats after the next European election than the baseline scenario.
The full names of the political groups and of the national parties appear as mouse-over text when the mouse pointer is held still over the name in the table. In the case of “other” parties and parties that are likely to change group after the next European elections, the mouse-over text also lists the groups that the party might join. The group to which the party is assigned in the dynamic scenario is listed first.
If available, the most recent poll of voting intentions for the European Parliament is used to calculate the seat distribution for each country. In case that more than one poll has been published, the average of all polls from the two weeks preceding the most recent poll is calculated, taking into account only the most recent poll from each polling institute. The cut-off date for taking a survey into account is the last day of its fieldwork, if known, otherwise the day of its publication.
For countries where the last specific European election poll was published more than a fortnight ago or where significantly fewer polls for European than for national parliamentary elections were published in the last two weeks, the most recent available poll for the national parliamentary election or the average of all national or European parliamentary polls from the two weeks preceding the most recent available poll is used instead. For countries where there are no recent polls for parliamentary elections, polls for presidential elections may be used instead, with the presidential candidates’ polling figures assigned to their respective parties (this concerns France and Cyprus in particular). For member states for which no recent polls can be found at all, the results of the last national or European elections are used.
As a rule, the national poll results of the parties are directly projected to the total number of seats in the country. For countries where the election is held in regional constituencies without interregional proportional compensation (currently Belgium and Ireland), regional polling data is used where available. Where this is not the case, the number of seats is calculated for each constituency using the overall national polling data. National electoral thresholds are taken into account in the projection where they exist.
In Belgium, constituencies in the European election correspond to language communities, while polls are usually conducted at the regional level. The projection uses polling data from Wallonia for the French-speaking community and polling data from Flanders for the Dutch-speaking community. For the German-speaking community, it uses the result of the last European election (1 seat for CSP).
In countries where it is common for several parties to run as an electoral alliance on a common list, the projection makes a plausibility assumption about the composition of these lists. In the table, such multi-party lists are usually grouped under the name of the electoral alliance or of its best-known member party. Sometimes, however, the parties of an electoral alliance split up after the election and join different political groups in the European Parliament. In this case, the parties are listed individually and a plausibility assumption is made about the distribution of list places (usually based on the 2024 European election results). This includes the following cases: Spain: Sumar: Sumar (place 1 and 6 on the list), CatComù (2), Compromís (3), IU (4) and Más País (5); Ahora Repúblicas: ERC (1, 4), Bildu (2) and BNG (3); CEUS: PNV (1) and CC (2); Romania: ADU: USR (1-2, 4-5, 7-9), PMP (3) and FD (6); Netherlands: PvdA (1, 3, 5 etc.) and GL (2, 4, 6 etc.); Hungary: DK (1-4, 6, 8), MSZP (5) and PM (7). When the election comes closer and the parties announce their candidates, the projection uses the distribution on the actual list instead. In some countries, the exact distribution of seats within an electoral alliance depends on preference votes and/or regional constituency results, so that only a plausible assumption can be made in advance. This concerns the following cases: Italy: AVS: SI (1, 3) and EV (2, 4); Poland: Konfederacja: NN (1, 3, 5 etc.) and RN (2, 4, 6 etc.). Occasionally, members of a single national party split into several political groups after the election; in such cases, a plausibility assumption (usually based on the status quo) is made about their distribution after the next European election. This currently applies to KE from Estonia. In France, some polls combine PS (S&D), EELV (G/EFA), PCF (Left) and sometimes LFI (Left); in these cases, the polling figures are divided between the parties according to the ratio in the last poll in which they were reported separately. In Italy, a special rule allows minority parties to enter the Parliament with only a low number of votes, provided they form an alliance with a larger party. The projection assumes such an alliance between FI and the SVP.
Since there is no electoral threshold for European elections in Germany, parties can win a seat in the European Parliament with less than 1 per cent of the vote. Since German polling institutes do not usually report values for very small parties, the projection includes them based on their results in the last European election (3 seats each for Volt and FW, 2 seats for Partei, 1 seat each for Tierschutzpartei, ÖDP, Familienpartei, and PdF). If a small party achieves a better value in current polls than in the last European election, the poll rating is used instead.
The following overview lists the data source for each member state. The dates refer to the last day of the fieldwork; if this is not known, to the day of publication of the polls:
Germany: national polls, 10-23/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;France: national polls, 7-8/10/2025, source: Wikipedia;
Italy: national polls, 19-23/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Spain: national polls, 10-20/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Poland: national polls, 4-17/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Romania: national polls, 15-23/1/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Netherlands: national polls, 16-21/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Belgium, French community: Wallonian polls for the national parliamentary election, 9/12/2025, source: Wikipedia;
Belgium, Dutch community: Flemis polls for the national parliamentary election,9/12/2025, source: Wikipedia;
Belgium, German community: European election results, 9/6/2024;
Czechia: national polls, 17/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Greece: national polls, 9-17/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Hungary: national polls, 6-17/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Portugal: national polls, 13/1/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Sweden: national polls, 26/1-8/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Austria: national polls, 17/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Bulgaria: national polls, 13-18/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Denmark: national polls, 3-15/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Slovakia: national polls, 8-9/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Finland: national polls, 3-16/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Ireland: national polls, 3-19/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Croatia: national polls, 20/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Lithuania: national polls, 24-29/1/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Latvia: national polls, 26/12/2025, source: Wikipedia;
Slovenia: national polls, 8-14/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Estonia: national polls, 9-18/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Cyprus: national polls, 14/2/2026, source: Wikipedia;
Luxembourg: national polls, 29/9/2025, source: Wikipedia;
Malta: national polls, 19/2/2026, source: Wikipedia.
Manuel Müller is a Helsinki-based EU researcher and the editor of the blog “Der (europäische) Föderalist”. His research focuses on supranational democracy and EU institutional reform. |


















