All the unknowns of the electoral lists for the European elections on June 9 are being cleared up and In the PSOE one of the big surprises is Leire Pajín. The former Minister of Health with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will be number four in the socialist candidacy, as El País announced and has been able to confirm. 20 minutes. Thus, Pajín will follow on the list its leader, Vice President Teresa Ribera, Iratxe García, who repeats as number 2, and Javi López, from the PSC, at number three. The former vice president of the Basque Government, Idoia Mendía has also confirmed that she is taking the leap to the European Parliament.
Until now, Pajín She was the director of the ISGlobal Development Institute and is known for having been Minister of Health between 2010 and 2011.. Although she is Basque by birth, she has been active in the PSOE of the Valencian Community and after leaving her seat in Congress she has developed her professional activity in the international arena. She has now become one of the new faces of Pedro Sánchez’s bid for the European Parliament. In 2012 she had left politics to work at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and since 2019 she has been president of the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (REDS).
Something similar happens with Mendía, with a lot of experience in his case at the regional level. The former leader of the Basque PSOE has confirmed his move to the European Parliament on social networks. Mendía was Secretary General of the PSE-EE (2014-2021), Minister of the Interior, Justice and Public Administration, and spokesperson for the Basque Government (2009-2012), and Vice President and Minister of Labor and Employment of the Basque Government (2020-2024). She left the baton in the hands of Eneko Andueza precisely, and now it is confirmed, to move to the European sphere.
The elections are held between June 6 and 9, from Thursday to Sunday, being This is the day on which voting is done in the majority of member states, including Spain. Others, like Italy, divide their election day into two to facilitate participation. These elections give way to the tenth term in the European Parliament and one of the key issues in the run-up to the elections is precisely the possibility, which will occur in some countries (Belgium, Malta or some areas of Germany) that the citizens from the age of 16.
The next European Parliament will be bigger. The number of MEPs was reduced from 750 (the maximum allowed in the Treaties) to 705 after the United Kingdom left the EU, and now the European Parliament will have 720 seats. Thus, there will be Member States that see their number of deputies increase, including, once again, Spain. In the Spanish case, in 2019, the PSOE won the elections with 21 seats and within their group, S&D, it is the majority delegation.
How will the total seats be distributed after 9-J? Germany (96), France (81), Italy (76), Spain (61)Poland (53), Romania (33), Netherlands (31), Belgium (22), Greece (21), Czech Republic (21), Sweden (21), Portugal (21), Hungary (21), Austria ( 20), Bulgaria (17), Denmark (15), Finland (15), Slovakia (15), Ireland (14), Croatia (12), Lithuania (11), Slovenia (9), Latvia (9), Estonia ( 7), Cyprus (6), Luxembourg (6) and Malta (6).
