German Manfred Weber continues as group leader in the EU Parliament's largest party group, with Swedish Tomas Tobé (The Moderate Party) as vice chairman.
The ECR group, which includes the Sweden Democrats, grows to become the third largest in Parliament and hopes for continued cooperation to the right.
Bavarian Weber was re-elected on Wednesday as group leader in the Christian Democratic and conservative EPP, with Tobé as one of the group's ten vice chairmen. Tobé received the second-most votes in the election, only beaten by Polish Andrzej Halicki.
Very honourable. It also gives us increased Swedish influence, notes Tobé.
In parallel, the Parliament's Green party group elected German Terry Reintke and Dutch Bas Eickhout as their group leaders. Reintke was re-elected, while Eickhout replaces Belgian veteran Philippe Lamberts, who has left the EU Parliament.
How large the party groups will be when the new EU Parliament takes office in July is still unclear, as many newly elected members have not yet decided and several parties are switching groups.
On Wednesday, the EU-sceptic and conservative ECR – which includes the Sweden Democrats – grew to become the third largest in the new Parliament with at least 83 seats, following additions from, among others, the Romanian nationalist party AUR.
We now hope for political influence and that the EPP is willing to cooperate with us, says Charlie Weimers (Sweden Democrats).
Correction: In an earlier version of the text, there was an incorrect number of seats for the ECR.
