Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate. This is commonly known as the spoiler effect, which can discourage minor party candidacies.
Vote splitting most easily occurs in plurality voting (also called first-past-the-post) in which each voter indicates a single choice and the candidate with the most votes wins, even if the winner does not have majority support. For example, if candidate A1 receives 30% of the votes, similar candidate A2 receives another 30% of the votes, and dissimilar candidate B receives the remaining 40% of the votes, plurality voting declares candidate B as the winner, even though 60% of the voters prefer either candidate A1 or A2.
Occurrence
One of the main functions of political parties is to mitigate the effect of spoiler-prone voting methods by winnowing on a local level the contenders before the election. Each party nominates at most one candidate per office since each party expects to lose if they nominate more than one. This means empirical observations of the frequency of spoiled elections may not be a good measure, because they exclude relevant information from candidates who chose not to run.
Vote splitting occurs when candidates or ballot questions have similar ideologies. A spoiler candidate can draw votes from a major candidate with similar politics, thereby causing a strong opponent of both or several to win. The minor candidates causing this effect are referred to as spoilers.
The problem also exists in two-round system and instant-runoff voting, since candidates are eliminated based on tallies of first-choice preferences, which get split between similar candidates, though it is reduced, because weaker spoilers are eliminated. All ranked-choice systems suffer from variations of the spoiler effect, according to Arrow's impossibility theorem. However, a candidate that can win head-to-head against all rivals (called a Condorcet winner) can still lose from third place in a 3-way vote split, a phenomenon known as a center squeeze. This occurred in the 2009 Burlington Vermont mayoral election and the 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election.
List of systems designed to reduce vote splitting
- Approval voting
- Citizens' assembly
- Electoral fusion
- Proportional representation
Election examples by country
Australia
In Australia, the 1918 Swan by-election saw the conservative vote split between the Country Party and Nationalist Party, which allowed the Australian Labor Party to win the seat. That led the Nationalist government to implement preferential voting in federal elections to allow Country and Nationalist voters to transfer preferences to the other party and to avoid vote splitting. Today, the Liberal Party and National Party rarely run candidates in the same seats, which are known as three-cornered contests. When three-cornered contests do occur the Labor Party would usually direct preferences to the Liberals ahead of the Nationals as they considered the Liberal Party to be less conservative than the Nationals. The 1996 Southern Highlands state by-election in New South Wales is an example of this when the Nationals candidate Katrina Hodgkinson won the primary vote but was defeated after preferences to Liberal candidate Peta Seaton when Seaton received Labor Party preferences.
Bolivia
Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) criticised the registration of Pachakuti Indigenous Movement (MIP) claiming that it was done to split the Indigenist vote in the 2002 general election. The two parties discussed an electoral alliance before both parties were allowed to run. MAS lost by less than 2% to the traditional Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) while MIP unexpectedly won more than 6%. Combined the two parties had 27.03% compared to the 22.46% of MNR.
Bulgaria
In 2001, the former tsar of Bulgaria Simeon II founded the NDSV. The NDSV won exactly 50% of the seats (120 out of 240 seats) thus barely missing an outright majority. Similarly named parties "Simeon II" Coalition, "National Union for Tsar Simeon II", "National Union Tsar Kiro" Coalition and "National Movement for New Era" (NDNE) got 3.44%, 1.70%, 0.60% and 0.05% respectively.
In Bulgaria, the so-called "blue parties" or "urban right" which include SDS, DSB, Yes, Bulgaria!, DBG, ENP, Coalition For you Bulgaria and Blue Unity frequently get just above or below the electoral threshold depending on formation of electoral alliances: In the EP election 2007, DSB (4.74%) and SDS (4.35%) were campaigning separately and both fell below the natural electoral of around 5 percent. In 2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election, DSB and SDS ran together as Blue Coalition gaining 6.76 percent. In 2013 Bulgarian parliamentary election, campaigning separately DGB received 3.25 percent, DSB 2.93 percent, SDS 1.37 percent and ENP 0.17 percent, thus all of them failed to cross the threshold this even led to a tie between the former opposition and the parties right of the centre. In the EP election 2014, SDS, DSB and DBG ran as Reformist Bloc gaining 6.45 percent and crossing the electoral threshold, while Blue Unity campaigned separately and did not cross the electoral threshold. In 2017 Bulgarian parliamentary election, SDS and DBG ran as Reformist Bloc gaining 3.14 percent, "Yes, Bulgaria!" received 2.96 percent, DSB 2.54 percent, thus all of them failed to cross the electoral threshold. In the EP election 2019, "Yes, Bulgaria!" and DBG ran together as Democratic Bulgaria and crossed the electoral threshold with 6.15 percent. In November 2021, electoral alliance Democratic Bulgaria crossed electoral threshold with 6.37 percent.
{| class="wikitable unsortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="font-size:80%;line-height:14px;"
|+
!rowspan=2 colspan=2|Parties
!colspan=4|2005
!colspan=4|EP 2007
!colspan=4|EP 2009
!colspan=4|2009
!colspan=4|2013
!colspan=4|EP 2014
!colspan=4|2014
!colspan=4|2017
!colspan=4|EP 2019
!colspan=4|April 2021
!colspan=4|July 2021
!colspan=4|November 2021
!colspan=4|2022
|-
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
|-
|style="background:;"|
|DBG
|colspan=16
|115,190 || 3.25 || 0 || 0.00
|rowspan=3|144,532 ||rowspan=3| 6.45 || rowspan=3|1 || rowspan=3|5.88
|rowspan=3|291,806 || rowspan=3|8.89 || rowspan=3|23 || rowspan=3|9.58
|rowspan=2|107,407 || rowspan=2|3.14 || rowspan=2|0 || rowspan=2|0.00
|colspan=20
|-
|style="background:;"|
|ODS/SDS
|280,323 || 7.68 || 20 || 8.33
|91,871 || 4.74 || 0 || 0.00
|rowspan=2| 204,817 || rowspan=2|7.95 || rowspan=2|1 || rowspan=2|5.88
|rowspan=2|285,662 || rowspan=2|6.76 || rowspan=2|15 || rowspan=2|7.18
|48,681 || 1.37 || 0 || 0.00
|colspan=20
|-
|style="background:;"|
|DSB
|234,788 || 6.44 || 17 || 7.08
|84,350 || 4.35 || 0 || 0.00
|103,638 || 2.93 || 0 || 0.00
|86,984 || 2.54 || 0 || 0.00
|rowspan=2|118,484 || rowspan=2|6.06 || rowspan=2|1 || rowspan=2|5.88
|rowspan=2|302,280 || rowspan=2|9.45 || rowspan=2| 27 || rowspan=2|11.25
|rowspan=2|345,331 || rowspan=2|12.64 || rowspan=2| 34 || rowspan=2|14.17
|rowspan=2|166,968 || rowspan=2|6.37 || rowspan=2| 16 || rowspan=2|6.66
|rowspan=2|186,528 || rowspan=2|7.45 || rowspan=2| 20 || rowspan=2|8.33
|-
|style="background:;"|
|DB
|colspan=28
|101,177 || 2.96 || 0 || 0.00
|-
|style="background:;"|
|ENP
|colspan=16
|6,143 || 0.17 || 0 || 0.00
|colspan=4
|rowspan=2|7,234||rowspan=2|0.22||rowspan=2|0||rowspan=2|0.00
|colspan=4
|1,855 || 0.09 || 0 || 0.00
|colspan=16
|-
|style="background:blue;"|
|Blue Unity
|colspan=20
|10,786 || 0.48 || 0 || 0.00
|colspan=24
|-
|style="background:#5F9EA0;"|
|
|colspan=36
|4,788 || 0.15 || 0 || 0.00
|colspan=8
|5,097 || 0.20 || 0 || 0.00
|-
|colspan=2|Total
|515,111 ||14.12 || 37 ||15.42
|176,221 || 9.09 || 0 || 0.00
|204,817 || 7.95 || 1 || 5.88
|285,662 || 6.76 || 15 || 7.18
From 1993 to 2004, the conservative vote in Canada was split between the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform (later the Alliance) Party. That allowed the Liberal Party to win almost all seats in Ontario and to win three successive majority governments.
The 2015 provincial election in Alberta saw the left-wing New Democratic Party win 62% of the seats with 40.6% of the province's popular vote after a division within the right-wing Progressive Conservative Party, which left it with only 27.8% of the vote, and its breakaway movement, the Wildrose Party, with 24.2% of the vote. In 2008, the last election in which the Progressive Conservative Party had been unified, it won 52.72% of the popular vote. The Progressive Conservatives had won every provincial election since the 1971 election, making them the longest-serving provincial government in Canadian history—being in office for 44 years. This was only the fourth change of government in Alberta since Alberta became a province in 1905, and one of the worst defeats a provincial government has suffered in Canada. It also marked the first time in almost 80 years that a left-of-centre political party had formed government in Alberta since the defeat of the United Farmers of Alberta in 1935 and the Depression-era radical monetary reform policies of William Aberhart's Social Credit government. During the 2021 Canadian federal election, it is speculated that the People's Party of Canada might have coast the CPC up to 24 seats.
In Canada, vote splits between the two major left-of-centre parties (Liberals and NDP) assisted the Conservative Party in winning the 2006, 2008, and 2011 federal elections, despite most of the popular vote going to left-wing parties in each race. During the 2022 Ontario General Election, Progressive Conservative Doug Ford won a second term as Premier of the Province of Ontario. The Progressive Conservatives won several ridings due to vote splitting. ONDP and Liberal Party voters combined for 47.8% of votes, whereas Ford emerged victorious with only 40.82% of total votes.
Chile
In the 2025 Chilean general election, multiple left-wing parties did not join the Unidad por Chile but competed with their own lists, namely the Greens, Regionalists and Humanists, the Popular Ecologist, Animalist, and Humanist Left, the Popular Green Alliance Party, People's Party and Green Ecologist Party. Combined these lists would have won 10% of the vote but only the first list managed to win 3 seats.
Similarly, both Amplitude and Amarillos por Chile endorsed the candidate of Chile Vamos but did not join the coalition and ended up without seats.
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+
|
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|+Valparaíso Region in the 2017 election
!colspan=2|Coalition
!/1
!/2
!/3
|-
|rowspan=2 style="background:;"|
|Chile Vamos
|244,623 (1)
| (3)
|
|-
|with Amplitude
| (1)
| (3)
| (5)
|-
| style="background:;"|
|The Force of Majority
|182,799 (2)
| (5)
|
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Frente Amplio
|96,394 (4)
|
|
|-
|colspan=5|Source
|}
|
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|+District 5 in the 2025 election
!colspan=2|Coalition
!/1
!/2
!/3
!/4
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Unidad por Chile
|161,027 (1)
| (2)
| (6)
| (7)
|-
|rowspan=2 style="background:;"|
|Chile Vamos
|76,051 (4)
|
|
|
|-
|with Amarillos
| (2)
| (7)
|
|
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Change for Chile
|76,992 (3)
|
|
|
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Party of the People
|64,845 (5)
|
|
|
|-
|colspan=6|Source
|}
|
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|+District 20 in the 2025 election
!colspan=2|Coalition
!/1
!/2
!/3
!/4
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Change for Chile
|154,584 (1)
| (5)
| (7)
|
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Unidad por Chile
|128,105 (2)
| (6)
|
|
|-
|rowspan=4 style="background:;"|
|VRH
|
|
|
|
|-
|Green Ecologist Party
|
|
|
|
|-
|Popular Ecologist Left
|
|
|
|
|-
|combined
| (3)
| (8)
|
|
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Chile Vamos
|98,546 (3)
| (8)
|
|
|-
| style="background:;"|
|Party of the People
|78,461 (4)
|
|
|
|-
|colspan=6|Source
|}
|-
|italic: seats effected by vote-splitting
|}
Czech Republic
After Independents disintegrated, their MEPs Vladimír Železný and Jana Bobošíková ran for Libertas and Sovereignty - Jana Bobošíková Bloc, alongside Party of Free Citizens three eurosceptic and Klausist lists ran in the election splitting the vote.
In 2021, Přísaha (4.68%), ČSSD (4.65%) and KSČM (3.60%) all failed to cross the 5 percent threshold, thus allowing a coalition of Spolu and PaS. This was also the first time that neither ČSSD nor KSČM had representation in parliament since 1992.
Egypt
In the 2012 Egyptian presidential election, held using the two-round system, vote-splitting among three leading moderate, non-Islamist candidates caused them all to be eliminated in the first round. This allowed the two more polarizing candidates, Mohamed Morsi and Ahmed Shafik, to advance to the runoff, despite pre-election polls suggesting the eliminated moderates would have defeated either finalist in a head-to-head contest. This led to the June 2013 Egyptian protests and 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.
France
In France, the 2002 presidential elections have been cited as a case of the spoiler effect: the numerous left-wing candidates, such as Christiane Taubira and Jean-Pierre Chevènement, both from political parties allied to the French Socialist Party, or the three candidates from Trotskyist parties, which altogether totalled around 20%, have been charged with making Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Party candidate, lose the two-round election in the first round to the benefit of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was separated from Jospin by only 0.68%. Some also cite the case of some districts in which the moderate right and the far right had more than half of the votes together, but the left still won the election; they accuse the left of profiting from the split. Also in the presidential elections 1969 (with five left-wing candidates which combined had 32%), in 2017 (split between four candidates which had 27% combined) and in 2022 (six left-wing candidates with 32% combined), the left failed to reach the run-off which may be traced back to the number of left-of-centre candidates. Similarly in the 1993 parliamentary election, where the green parties ran against the parties of the presidential majority. This led to many right-wing run-offs and the most right-wing dominated parliament since 1968.
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+
|
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|+1969
!colspan=4|Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|UDR
|Georges Pompidou
|10,051,783
|44.47
|-
|rowspan=6 style="background:red;"|
|rowspan=6|Left
|style="background:;"|
|PCF
|Jacques Duclos
|4,808,285
|21.27
|-
|style="background:;"|
|SFIO
|Gaston Defferre
|1,133,222
|5.01
|-
|style="background:;"|
|PSU
|Michel Rocard
|816,470
|3.61
|-
|style="background:;"|
|DVG
|Louis Ducatel
|286,447
|1.27
|-
|style="background:;"|
|LC
|Alain Krivine
|239,104
|1.06
|-
|colspan=3|Total
|7,283,528
|32.22
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|CD
|Alain Poher
|5,268,613
|23.31
|-
|colspan=7|Source: Constitutional Council
|}
|
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|+2002
!colspan=4|Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|rowspan=9 style="background:red;"|
|rowspan=9|Left
|style="background:;"|
|PS
|Lionel Jospin
|4,610,113
|16.18
|-
|style="background:;"|
|LO
|Arlette Laguiller
|1,630,045
|5.72
|-
|style="background:;"|
|MDC
|Jean-Pierre Chevènement
|1,518,528
|5.33
|-
|style="background:;"|
|LV
|Noël Mamère
|1,495,724
|5.25
|-
|style="background:;"|
|LC
|Olivier Besancenot
|1,210,562
|4.25
|-
|style="background:;"|
|PCF
|Robert Hue
|960,480
|3.37
|-
|style="background:;"|
|PRG
|Christiane Taubira
|660,447
|2.32
|-
|style="background:;"|
|PT
|Daniel Gluckstein
|132,686
|0.47
|-
|colspan=3|Total
|12,218,585
|42.87
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|RPR
|Jacques Chirac
|5,665,855
|19.88
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|FN
|Jean-Marie Le Pen
|4,804,713
|16.86
|-
|colspan=7|Source: Constitutional Council
|}
|
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|+2017
!colspan=4|Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|rowspan=5 style="background:red;"|
|rowspan=5|Left
|style="background:;"|
|LFI
|Jean-Luc Mélenchon
|7,059,951
|19.58
|-
|style="background:;"|
|PS
|Benoît Hamon
|2,291,288
|6.36
|-
|style="background:;"|
|NPA
|Philippe Poutou
|394,505
|1.09
|-
|style="background:;"|
|LO
|Nathalie Arthaud
|232,384
|0.64
|-
|colspan=3|Total
|9,978,128
|27.67
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|LREM
|Emmanuel Macron
|8,656,346
|24.01
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|FN
|Marine Le Pen
|7,678,491
|21.30
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|LR
|François Fillon
|7,212,995
|20.01
|-
|colspan=7|Source: Constitutional Council
|}
|
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|+2022
!colspan=4|Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|rowspan=7 style="background:red;"|
|rowspan=7|Left
|style="background:;"|
|LFI
|Jean-Luc Mélenchon
|7,712,520
|21.95
|-
|style="background:;"|
|EELV
|Yannick Jadot
|1,627,853
|4.63
|-
|style="background:;"|
|PCF
|Fabien Roussel
|802,422
|2.28
|-
|style="background:;"|
|PS
|Anne Hidalgo
|616,478
|1.75
|-
|style="background:;"|
|NPA
|Philippe Poutou
|268,904
|0.77
|-
|style="background:;"|
|LO
|Nathalie Arthaud
|197,094
|0.56
|-
|colspan=3|Total
|11,225,271
|31.95
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|LREM
|Emmanuel Macron
|9,783,058
|27.85
|-
|style="background:;"|
|colspan=3|RN
|Marine Le Pen
|8,133,828
|23.15
|-
|colspan=7|Source: Minister of the Interior
|}
|}
In the 2023 French Polynesian legislative election, the anti-separatist A here ia Porinetia did not form an alliance with the Tāpura Huiraʻatira allowing the separatist Tāvini Huiraʻatira to win the run-off with just 44%.
In the 2009 European Parliament election, two right-wing sovereignist lists Libertas France and Debout la République (DLR) competed against each other. Libertas and DLR failed to cross 5% threshold in all but one constituency. Similar vote splitting happened between the two (post-)Trotskyist parties New Anticapitalist Party and Lutte Ouvrière. Debout la France–CNIP (the former previously known as DLR), Popular Republican Union (UPR) and The Patriots ran independently and gained 3.5%, 1.2% and 0.6% respectively thus falling below the newly introduced national threshold of 5%.
Germany
In the German presidential election of 1925, Communist Ernst Thälmann refused to withdraw his candidacy although it was extremely unlikely that he would have won, and the leadership of the Communist International urged him not to run. In the second (and final) round of balloting, Thälmann shared 1,931,151 votes (6.4%). Centre Party candidate Wilhelm Marx, backed by pro-republican parties, won 13,751,605 (45.3%). The right-wing candidate Paul von Hindenburg won 14,655,641 votes (48.3%). If most of Thälmann's supporters had voted for Marx, he likely would have won the election. That election had great significance because after 1930, Hindenburg increasingly favoured authoritarian means of government, and in 1933, he was persuaded by Franz von Papen to appoint Adolf Hitler to the chancellorship. Hindenburg's death the following year gave Hitler unchecked control of the German government.
In the 1990 German federal election, the Western Greens did not meet the threshold, which was applied separately for former East and West Germany. The Greens could not take advantage of this, because the "Alliance 90" (which had absorbed the East German Greens) ran separately from "The Greens" in the West. Together, they would have narrowly passed the 5.0 percent threshold (West: 4.8%, East: 6.2%). The Western Greens returned to the Bundestag in 1994.
In the 2013 German federal election, the FDP, in Parliament since 1949, received only 4.8 percent of the list vote, and won no single district, excluding the party altogether. This, along with the failure of the right-wing eurosceptic party AfD (4.7%), gave a left-wing majority in Parliament despite a center-right majority of votes (CDU/CSU itself fell short of an absolute majority by just 5 seats). As a result, Merkel's CDU/CSU formed a grand coalition with the SPD.
Klimaliste has been accused of splitting the vote which would have gone to Alliance 90/The Greens. For example, in the 2021 Baden-Württemberg state election a Red-Green coalition was just a single seat short of a majority while Klimaliste missed the threshold with receiving 0.9% of the vote.
Greece
In Greece, Antonis Samaras was the Minister for Foreign Affairs for the liberal conservative government of New Democracy under Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis but ended up leaving and founding the national conservative Political Spring in response to the Macedonia naming dispute, resulting in the 1993 Greek legislative election where PASOK won with its leader Andreas Papandreou making a successful political comeback, which was considered to be responsible for the Greek government debt crisis.
Guatemala
In 2019 the different parties to the left of National Unity of Hope (Semilla, Winaq, MLP, URNG, EG, CPO-CRD and Libre) ran with their own lists and presidential candidates. Their highest candidates Thelma Cabrera and Manuel Villacorta archived 10.3% and 5.2% respectively, combined stronger than the main conservative candidate Alejandro Giammattei 13.9% (who was elected in the run-off). If they ran together there wont have been any conservative candidate in the run-off. A similar scenario happened in the 2023 election, in which four right-of-centre candidates (Manuel Conde, Armando Castillo, Edmond Mulet and Zury Ríos) gained just below 11% each, all behind Semilla's candidate Bernardo Arévalo with around 16%.
Hungary
In the 2014 parliamentary election small Social Democratic Hungarian Civic Party won 278 votes in Budapest 12 and 128 votes in Budapest 15. If they voted Left Unity in one of these constituencies instead, Fidesz–KDNP would have lost their super-majority.
Before the 2018 parliamentary election, there were calls for a united opposition alliance including of LMP and far-right Jobbik which were not part of the Left Unity. Only in some constituencies, there were joint candidates.
Israel
In 1981, three Arab lists competed: the Muslim-Druze-led United Arab List, Christian-led Arab Citizens' List and the Bedouin-led Arab Citizens' List, all of them falling below the 1% threshold.
In April 2019, among the 3 lists representing right-wing to far-right Zionism and supportive of Netanyahu, only one crossed the threshold the right-wing government had increased to 3.25 percent: the Union of the Right-Wing Parties with 3.70 percent, while future Prime Minister Bennett's New Right narrowly failed at 3.22 percent, and Zehut only 2.74 percent, destroying Netanyahu's chances of another majority, and leading to snap elections in September and a political gridlock lasting three years. The former two would unite as Yamina while Zehut withdrew after a deal with Netanyahu. Nevertheless, the National camp failed to win a majority.
Italy
Sicily is traditionally dominated by the centre-right but in the 2012 Sicilian regional election the centre-right was split between Nello Musumeci, Gianfranco Micciché, Mariano Ferro and Cateno De Luca allowing the centre-left Rosario Crocetta to win the election with just 30.5%.
The Italian Left often struggled to meet thresholds after the formation of the Democratic Party, in 2008 most left-wing parties ran on the Rainbow Left list which got 3.08% but other left-wing parties, the Workers' Communist Party (PCL) with 0.57%, the Critical Left with 0.46% and the Communist Alternative Party (PdAC) with 0.01%, still split enough votes from them to fall below the 4% threshold. In 2009 three different left-wing lists competed against each other. The Federation of the Left got 3.39%, Left and Freedom got 3.13% and the PCL got 0.54%, thus all fell short of the 4% threshold. Similarly in 2019, Green Europe got 2.32% and The Left got 1.75%.
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+