Successful Animal Politics EU Movement wins 2 million votes and 3 seats in the European Parliament
Last week, the international political movement for animal rights proved successful in the European elections. The Dutch Party for the Animals (PftA) will retain its seat in the European Parliament and the international movement Animal Politics EU will grow to a total of 3 seats. Both the Portuguese and the German sister parties of the PftA, PAN and Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz, have won a seat in the European Parliament.
Portuguese party PAN celebrates its victory in the European elections
“The Dutch Party for the Animals will continue its green, progressive and Eurosceptic position in Brussels in the coming five years. This result will give the animals an even stronger voice in the European Parliament,” says PftA’s first candidate for the European Parliament Anja Hazekamp.
For the first time in history, eleven political parties for animal rights from all over Europe took part in the European elections, working together under the name Animal Politics EU to promote the welfare of animals, people and our planet. As part of their campaign, they launched a joint video. The parties represent constituents in the following EU countries:
The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Cyprus and the United Kingdom.
The parties combined obtained nearly 2 million votes. Three out of the eleven parties obtained a seat in the European Parliament, which means the political animal rights movement in the EU has grown. The Dutch Party for the Animals, the German Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz and the Portuguese PAN each won one seat. The Germans were just short of the number of votes required for a second seat and the Portuguese exceeded all expectations by obtaining 5.1% of all votes. Eventually, the Animal Politics EU parties aim to form a political group in the European Parliament. The French Parti Animaliste also ranked high with almost half a million votes, but was not allocated a seat due to France’s particularly high electoral threshold of 5%.
“I am immensely proud of this result. For the first time, our international animal rights movement wins European seats in three different countries. A powerful signal that the resistance against the exploitation of animals, people and our planet is growing. And this is just the beginning,” says Dutch Party for the Animals’ leader Marianne Thieme.