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Many parties are delaying finalizing their candidate lists until as late as April: leaving little time for voters to get to know new faces.
In Bulgaria 94 percent of the MEPs still don’t know whether they will have a place on their party list in the May election. In Greece the number is 90 percent, followed Italy and Czech Republic (86 percent).
The Greens are the most organized party group within the Parliament: 88 percent of their MEPs already know if they are running or not, including 54 percent who plan to run again.
In Slovenia all eight current MEPs say they will campaign to keep their seats. In Slovakia 11 of the country’s 13 current MEPs intend to return to Brussels and Strasbourg in June.
The right-leaning Europe of Freedom and Direct (EFDD) will lose 45 percent of its MEPs to retirement alone, mostly due to 19 British lawmakers leaving because of Brexit.
Full candidate lists of all political parties are available in nine members states, according to POLITICO reporting based on MEP statements, political parties’ communication and news reports: Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Denmark.
The countries currently most likely to send new faces to Parliament are Austria and Belgium, where 61 percent and 62 percent of MEPs respectively indicated that they will retire after the European election.