EU projects center-right group to be top party in May vote

BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Parliament has projected which parties will get seats after the European Union-wide May election and says that the center-right Christian Democrat EPP group would remain the largest party ahead of the center-left Socialist S&D.

The redesigned European Parliament is expected to have 705 seats total, which would include lawmakers from 27 EU nations after the expected departure of Britain on March 29.

In Monday's projections, the EPP would win 183 seats and the S&D 135. The pro-business ALDE group would be the third biggest in parliament with 75 seats.

The elections will be held May 23-26 in all EU nations.

The Parliament's Public Opinion Monitoring Unit based its projections on voting intention polls from each EU nation and adapted the results to the current makeup of the political groups.