# 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%.

## Electoral system

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 | MEPs | 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 | Communists and the Far Left | René-Emile Piquet | 42 | | |
| 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: |
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%
EUL–LU
8.11%
ED
6.56%
G
5.79%
EDA
3.86%
DR
3.28%
RBW
2.51%
NI
2.32% :

### Results by country

| GroupNation | 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

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 | Archived 25 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine Archived 4 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine |
European Parliament election, 1989 - Timeline :
| Second Parliament | Second Parliament | Second Parliament | 1989 Election and Regrouping | 1989 Election and Regrouping | Third Parliament | Third Parliament | Third Parliament |
| Groups | Groups | Pre-elections Last session | Change | Results July 25 | New Groups | 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 |
| | RBW | 20 | +23 | 30 | | G | 30 |
| | COM | 48 | -6 | 28 | | EUL | 28 |
| | COM | 48 | -6 | 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 | Total | 518 | 0 | 518 | Total | Total | 518 |
| Sources Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine ||||||||
European Parliament election, 1989 - Delegation at 25 July 1989 :
| Group | 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: Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine | Sources: Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine | Sources: Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine | Sources: Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine | 100% | 518 |