by Wang Zichen
BRUSSELS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Group of European People's Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), two traditional leading parties in the European Parliament, might lose their joint majority in this year's elections, according to the first seat projection for new European Parliament.
The European Parliament published the first aggregated projection of the composition of the new European Parliament, based on exit polls published in 11 countries and pre-election voting intentions in 17 Member States.
The projection has EPP and S&D winning 173 seats and 147 seats respectively, in the 751-member legislature
Despite they are projected to remain the largest and second largest political group in the legislature, putting together they would be fewer than half of 751 seats.
Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the ALDE Group, which is projected to be winning 102 seats and the third largest group in the European Parliament, said it's the first time since 1979 that the two classic parties will no longer have a majority.
"No solid - I underline solid - pro-European majority (in the European Parliament) is possible without the help, without the participation of our new centrist group" which includes the ALDE Group, Verhofstadt said.
Sunday is the end of the four-day elections for the 28-member bloc, where 426 million people were eligible to vote for the 751 European Members of Parliament.
Reversing a decades-long trend of declining participation, this year's elections - excluding the UK - is projected to climb above 50 percent.
