During May's European elections, about 200 million Europeans elected MEPs to represent them over the coming five years in the new European Parliament. Those MEPs are organised into groups based on their political affinities. Find out about the priorities of each group in our video series.

S&D, the parliamentary group of the Party of European Socialists, is the second largest group in the European Parliament, with 152 members . It is also one of the oldest political groups in the Parliament, having been represented since the first direct elections in 1979.

MEPs from 26 EU countries belong to the group. The only EU countries not represented in S&D are the Czech Republic and Ireland.

Iratxe García Pérez (Spain) was elected president of the S&D group in June 2019. She has been an MEP since 2004. The group has nine vice-presidents.

Staunchly pro-European, the group is focusing on social issues, including equality and the fight against climate change.

Three out of 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament are members of the S&D group, as are four out of 20 chairs of the parliamentary committees.