Though the election system is purely proportional and the S&D won the popular vote, the reason that it ended up with fewer seats is simple: its affiliated parties won relatively more votes in the larger countries, where it “costs” more voters to gain a single seat. Conversely, the EPP performed relatively better in small countries, where the vote cost per seat is much lower.
尽管选举制度完全按比例定胜负，而S&D在民众投票中获胜，但其在欧洲议会中获得的席位反而更少，原因很简单：其所属政党在大国赢得的选票相对较多，而获得一个欧洲议会席位所需要的选票“成本”在大国也更大。反之，欧洲人民党在获得议席选票成本低得多的小国表现较好。