The ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is on track to win six out of Croatia's 12 seats in the European Parliament in the May election, with three opposition parties sharing the remaining six seats, a projection released by the European Parliament said on Monday.

The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) would win three seats, the anti-establishment Zivi Zid party two, and the conservative populist Most party one seat.

In May, candidates across Europe will compete for spots in the new 705-seat assembly, downsized from the current 751 seats due to United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. The removal of UK’s 73 seats resulted in a new apportionment for the remaining 27 EU member countries, with Croatia’s quota increased from 11 to 12 MEPs.

The survey, which polled 1,300 voters in Croatia earlier this month, showed that HDZ would win nearly a third of the vote (32.1 percent), followed by SDP at 17.9 percent, anti-establishment party Zivi Zid at 12.3 percent, and the conservative populist Most party with 7.4 percent. Votes of undecided voters were folded proportionately into shares won by parties crossing the election threshold.

In the last election in May 2014, HDZ-led conservative coalition won six seats, a centre-left and liberal alliance won another five, with the remaining seat won by the green liberal party Orah, on the back of a brief surge of popularity at the time.

The latest projection, released by the European Parliament on Monday, is based on polls conducted in each EU country and aggregated by the Kantar Public market research agency on behalf of the European Parliament.

Overall, the European People’s Party (EPP) bloc, which gathers centre-right parties across Europe and which HDZ belong to, is projected to win 183 seats in the new assembly, followed by the centre-left Socialists and Democrats group (S&D) with 135 seats.

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