"So will your party join The Left or The Greens in the European Parliament?" "Yes."
So Sumar's (Spanish party) politicians will apparently be distributed across both The Left and the Greens European parties. Presumably an image maneuver, since joining an European party usually doesn't bind your vote, and Spanish green parties usually get integrated in leftist electoral options anyway.
In the Netherlands, the parties PvdA and GroenLinks have started working together very closely, participating in elections with combined lists. They did the same for the EP elections, but had the challenge that PvdA was part of S&D, whereas GroenLinks was part of the Greens.
They went for the same solution: half the list (the PvdA part) will join S&D, and half (the GroenLinks part) will join the Greens. They will align their votes, though.
The way I interpret that, is that it'll be easier to influence the Greens (since it's a smaller group and thus GroenLinks is a larger part of it), but if the S&D position can be swayed, it'll have more effect. And in general, both parties presumably aren't that far from their group's stances anyway.
So what you are saying is that if there is a given vote in the US parliament, in order to find out how someone will vote, you need someone who can distinguish between the colours red and blue, and if you want to do the same for the EU parliament, you need a doctorate and a decade of intense study to even begin to comprehend the complexities? /s
Yeah, which seems a bit of a hassle, given that there's only two possible opinions one could have on any given matter. Don't know why they bother with more than two parties, really.
Sumar is a mix of several parties, a coalition. Also, the first of the list is an independent person. Not all the parties compounding Sumar are integrated in the left or the greens. The first of the list, the independent one, will go to the left. Second and third on the list, will go to the greens, and the fourth one, from a party that is not integrated in the greens but in the left, will go to the left if elected.
That is because Sumar is a coalition, several groups and parties got together for the elections. Representatives from each party can choose where group to go.
Lol I expected this to be a Lena Schilling meme (lead candidate for the Austrian Greens, who allegedly joked with friends that she would desert to the left faction)