> the major parties entered into an agreement where they'd vote for the candidate backed by whichever party got the most seats That's wrong. The only pre-elect

> the major parties entered into an agreement where they'd vote for the candidate backed by whichever party got the most seats That's wrong. The only pre-election statement was that the president should be someone who had campaigned for it. It wasn't until after the election that the parties agreed that EPP should have first shot as the largest party. The S&D for example demanded budget changes for their backing of Juncker, and I believe Parliament presidency, the negotiations continued for some time before they agreed to back him. If you want to talk about democratic deficit, In the UK in 2005 the Labour and Cooperative parties got a combined 35% of the vote - barely more than the EPP in 2014 - but they got 100% of the power.