Macron’s party suffered a heavy defeat from the far-right National Rally party, while in Germany support for Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats sank to a projected 14%, behind the extreme-right Alternative for Germany, which surged into second place.
Millions of Europeans voted for candidates to serve five-year terms in a new European Parliament, the legislative branch of the 27-member trade bloc. Provisional results from the voting that ended Sunday showed the Christian Democrats would have 189 seats, up 13, the Social Democrats 135, down 4, and the pro-business Renew group 83, down 19. The Greens slumped to 53, down 18.
GREENS AND LEFT-WING PARTIES DO WELL IN NORDIC NATIONS
Greens and left-leaning parties emerged as winners in the three Nordic EU members, underlying how environmental issues remain a focus of concern for many in that region.
Sweden, Denmark, and Finland defied a trend seen across much of the EU in which far-right parties surged due to concerns over migration.
In Sweden, the far-right Sweden Democrats, who have been gaining support for years and became the second-largest party in the 2022 national elections, came in fourth place on Sunday.
Christine Nissen, an analyst with the Copenhagen-based think tank Europa, said Monday that security remains the top issue for voters in the Nordics, followed by climate and the green transition.
Many traditional parties in past years have adopted tough stances on migration.
In Denmark, pro-European Union parties prevailed, with the climate-friendly Socialist People’s Party making the largest gains. They were followed by the Social Democrats and the Liberals, which are both in the government.
In Finland, the governing conservative National Coalition Party garnered the most votes, nearly 25%. However, the Left Alliance made gains and the populist Finns Party lost its share compared to the last EU election, getting just 6%.
HEAD OF FRANCE'S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEFENDS MACRON'S DECISION TO DISSOLVE IT
The president of France’s lower house of parliament says the president was not forced to dismiss the National Assembly but did so to show he was responsive to voters.
President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the legislature and called a snap election Sunday night after his party was handed a humbling defeat by the far-right in the European elections.
“There were other paths,” said Yaël Braun-Pivet, who has presided over the National Assembly since last the legislative elections in June 2022. But, Braun-Pivet, a member of Macron’s Renaissance party, said the president acted swiftly to “face reality” and to show that he has heard the voters’ message.
“We are told too often that we do not hear, that we are cut off from the people, and there, the president decided on a very clear vote by the French,” Braun-Pivet said in an interview with a French public broadcaster on Monday.
AUSTRIA'S FAR-RIGHT PARTY CELEBRATES FIRST WIN IN A NATIONWIDE VOTE
Austria’s far-right Freedom Party is celebrating a narrow win in the European Parliament election as the country looks forward to a national vote expected in September.
The Freedom Party took 25.7% of the vote on Sunday, finishing in first place in a nationwide election for the first time. It was followed by Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party with 24.7% and the center-left opposition Social Democrats with 23.2%. The Greens, Nehammer’s junior coalition partners, took 10.7% of the vote.
Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl said in a statement that “this election result means nothing less than that Austrians have made history today.” He said the party will continue to work to take the chancellor’s job later this year.
Nehammer acknowledged that there is “great dissatisfaction,” the Austria Press Agency reported. He vowed that his party will convince voters it takes their concerns seriously over the coming months by acting against irregular migration and overregulation.
ANTI-IMMIGRANT PARTY ALIGNED WITH HUNGARY'S ORBAN DOES WELL IN SLOVENIA
The right-wing opposition Slovenian Democratic Party has won the most votes in the EU election in Slovenia, dealing a blow to the ruling liberal Freedom Movement of Prime Minister Robert Golob.
The opposition SDS won 30.8%, or four out of Slovenia’s nine parliamentary seats, while Golob’s party won 22.1%, or two mandates, according to the election authorities. The remaining three seats went to smaller parties.
SDS leader Janez Jansa, a staunchly anti-immigrant ally of Hungary’s hard-line Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, urged the ruling coalition to dissolve parliament and call a snap election.
Golob, however, said he was happy with the result and that overall center-left parties won more votes than right-leaning groups.
MAINSTREAM CONSERVATIVES WIN IN GERMANY, WITH SECOND-PLACE FINISH FOR FAR-RIGHT
Final results in Germany confirm a clear win for mainstream opposition conservatives, a second-place finish for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, and a dismal showing by the three governing parties in the European Parliament election.
Official figures Monday showed the center-right Union bloc taking 30% of the vote. Alternative for Germany took 15.9%.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats won only 13.9% of the vote for their worst post-World War II showing yet in a nationwide election. Their two coalition partners, the environmentalist Greens, and the pro-business Free Democrats took 11.9% and 5.2% respectively.
All were significantly below their results in Germany’s 2021 national election. The Greens suffered painful losses compared with the 2019 European election.
The new BSW party took 6.2% of the vote.
Germany has 96 of the new European Parliament’s 720 seats. Of those, 29 went to the Union, 15 to Alternative for Germany, 14 to the Social Democrats, 12 to the Greens, five to the Free Democrats, and six to BSW. The rest went to a string of smaller parties.
WIN FOR DONALD TUSK'S CENTRIST PARTY IN POLAND AMID THE GROWTH OF FAR-RIGHT
The centrist party of Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk won the most votes, according to official results, giving it its first electoral victory over a right-wing populist party in a decade.
Many people across Europe hailed Tusk’s return to power last year as a rare case of a democratic party prevailing over populist and authoritarian forces. While Sunday’s voting solidified Tusk’s position, the results published Monday also showed that his lead is small, and that support for the far right is rising.
His Civic Coalition took 37.1% of the votes in Sunday’s EU election. Law and Justice, the party led by Jarosław Kaczyński that held power from 2015 until last year, got 36.2%. That underlined the continued attraction of its nationalist and conservative worldview to many Polish voters, despite reports of corruption during its years in power.
Meanwhile, a far-right party, Confederation, had its best result ever, coming third with 12.1% — in line with an EU-wide surge of support for nationalist, anti-EU parties.
INITIAL PROJECTIONS INDICATE ITALIAN PREMIER GIORGIA MELONI'S PARTY HAS WON THE MOST VOTES
Initial projections based on 18% of votes counted in Italy indicate Premier Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party has won the largest percentage of votes in the European parliamentary elections.
The projection released by public broadcaster RAI puts Brothers of Italy as the most popular party with 28.5% of the vote, while the center-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) was second with 23.7%.
The other main opposition party, the 5-Star Movement, won 10.5%, while Forza Italia, founded by late premier Silvio Berlusconi, was fourth with 10%, followed by the far-right League at 8.3%.
HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER ORBAN'S NATIONALIST PARTY APPEARS SET TO TAKE THE MOST VOTES
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist party appeared set to take the most votes in Sunday’s European Parliament elections, a race that pitted the long-serving leader against a new challenger that has upended Orbán’s grip on Hungarian politics in recent months.
With 55% of votes counted, Orbán’s Fidesz party stood at 43% of the vote, enough to send 11 delegates of Hungary’s 21 total seats in the European Union’s legislature.
While Fidesz took a plurality of votes, it was down nearly 10 percentage points from its support in the 2019 EU elections and looked set to lose two seats in what was widely seen as a referendum on Orbán’s popularity.
While Fidesz has dominated Hungarian politics since 2010, many are deeply dissatisfied with how it has governed the country. A deep economic crisis and a recent series of scandals involving Fidesz politicians have rocked the party, which prides itself on upholding family values and Christian conservatism.
SPAIN'S MAIN OPPOSITION CONSERVATIVES PULL AHEAD OF GOVERNING SOCIALISTS
Spain’s leading opposition conservatives pulled ahead of the governing Socialists in the European Union’s parliamentary elections, with the far-right making significant gains amid the surprise appearance of a new extremist party led by a social media influencer.
With 99% of votes counted, the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) had 34% of the votes, four percentage points more than the center-left Socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. That translated into 22 seats for the conservatives, nine more than in the previous European election, and 20 for the Socialists.
Spain has the fourth largest number of parliamentary seats allocated in the EU’s assembly: 61 out of 720.
The results were a significant improvement for the PP conservatives, who had likened the European vote to a referendum on Sánchez’s administration. But the biggest gains were on the far right of the political spectrum.
EUROSKEPTIC CENTRIST OPPOSITION WINS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION IN CZECH REPUBLIC
The centrist opposition ANO (YES) movement led by former populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis has won the European Parliament election in the Czech Republic.
Euroskeptic Babis defeated the center-right Together coalition that consists of three partners in the Czech governing coalition: the conservative Civic Democratic Party of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Christian Democrats, and the liberal-conservative TOP 09 party.
ANO won 26% of the votes, for seven seats, while Together claimed 22%, for six seats.
DUTCH RESULTS CONFIRM FAR-RIGHT, ANTI-IMMIGRATION PARTY FOR FREEDOM IS THE BIGGEST WINNER
Near complete Dutch results confirmed Sunday night that Geert Wilders’ far-right, anti-immigration Party for Freedom was the biggest winner in elections for the European Union parliament.
Wilders’ party won six seats, up from one in the last European parliament, according to a nearly complete count of the Dutch vote, national broadcaster NOS reported. That is one seat less than projected by an exit poll after the Dutch voted Thursday.
That one seat difference did not dampen Wilders’ delight. “Still the very biggest winner with five more seats!” he wrote on social media platform X.
OPPOSITION PARTY CLAIMS VICTORY IN SLOVAKIA
The major opposition Progressive Slovakia has claimed victory in the European Parliament elections in Slovakia, topping the leftist Smer (Direction) party of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The vote took place just weeks after Fico survived an assassination attempt.
Progressive Slovakia, a liberal and pro-Western group, won 27.8% of the vote, for six parliamentary seats.
Smer, which refuses to send any arms to Ukraine to face Russia's invasion and is critical of mainstream European policies, followed with 24.8%, for five seats.
NEAR COMPLETE RESULTS IN GREECE SHOW GOVERNING CENTER-RIGHT PARTY IN COMFORTABLE WIN
Near complete results in Greece show the governing center-right New Democracy party comfortably ahead in the EU Parliamentary election with just under 28% of the vote but with a poorer showing than the 33% it won in the previous election which the party leadership had set as a bar for Sunday's poll.
Results from 95% of polling precincts showed that the left-wing main opposition SYRIZA also lost ground, polling just below 15%, down from nearly 24% in 2019. Socialist PASOK scored just under 13%, up from nearly 8%. Hard-right populist Greek Solution, which also saw a rise in its popularity to 9.5% from 4%, is the largest of three far-right parties to send representatives to the European Parliament, alongside the ultra-religious Niki with 4% and Voice of Reason with 3%.
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