Traditionally, the EU has been governed by an informal coalition of the two largest groups/parties, centre-right EPP and centre-left S&D, both being pro-EU. After the last election where they underperformed, they were joined by the third largest group, centrist, pro-EU Renew.

This election, pro-EU groups collectively have lost a lot of seats while right-wing EU-sceptic groups gained seats. The most radical of these groups, ID, made the biggest gains. This will make coalition building and therefore governing way more complicated.

European parties are alliances of national parties from various member states. Those representatives elected to the European Parliament for the national parties form so called groups. Typically, these groups correspond to the European parties. Usually, it makes more sense to talk about the groups rather than the parties.