Liberal group the "kingmaker" of the EU parliament

3.05.17pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 6th Jul 2010

A new study of voting patterns in the European Parliament says the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) is the 'kingmaker' in the new Parliament being able to choose to form a winning majority either with the centre-right EPP or the centre-left Socialist group (S&D) along with the Greens/EFA (and sometimes GUE/NGL).

As a result, ALDE has so far 'won' more often than the EPP in voting situations: (97% to 93 %). This was not the case in the previous Parliament.

The survey, carried out by academics in the VoteWatch project, was presented in Brussels recently. Diana Wallis speaking on behalf of ALDE at the launch of the report said:

"On one level, the observation that ALDE is in the 'kingmaker' role is, of course, brilliant but I also agree it's not who is 'kingmaker' or who wins the most votes; it's actually about what the votes are about and what we achieve for people out there."

Link to the report: http://www.votewatch.eu/