Here's our guide to how the European Parliament elections played out across the member states...
BELGIUM
THE situation in Belgium was complicated by the fact that the country was hosting a simultaneous general and local election at the weekend. There was no outright winner of the general election and a coalition is awaited. In the European elections the far-right Flanders nationalist party Vlaams Belang made significant gains but elsewhere it was the Greens who made most progress.
BULGARIA
DESPITE recent scandals, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, above, leader of the ruling centre-right GERB party, said yesterday he was happy with the outcome of the European elections but picked a fight with the Bulgarian Socialist Party over claims that President Rumen Radev had campaigned for his opponents. GERB took 31% against the Socialists’ 24% on a record low turnout.
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CROATIA
IT was another victory for a ruling party, with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). They beat their rivals the Social Democrats (SDP) by 22.72% to 18.71%. HDZ are broadly centre-right, SDP are centre-left, and they got four seats each.
CYPRUS
IN what could be a signal for the future of Cyprus, a Turkish Cypriot, Niyazi Kızılyürek, has become the first person of that background to win a European parliamentary seat. The Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) candidate becomes one of their two MEPs, but AKEL lost out narrowly to the ruling centre-right Democratic Rally.
CZECH REPUBLIC
THE opposition parties made gains against the ruling two-party coalition. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and his ANO movement won with a reduced vote but his Social Democrat partners saw their vote slump while three pro-European opposition parties all gained seats.
DENMARK
IT was supposed to be a triumphal procession for the far-right Danish People’s Party, who would then go on to make their mark in the country’s general election next week. However, scandals and worries about climate change led to them being rejected, with the ruling Liberal Party gaining seats to boost their hopes if seeing off the Social Democrats on June 5.
ESTONIA
THERE was much consternation and comment when the far-right EKRE party joined the coalition government after March’s general election, but they lost out heavily in the European election, gaining only one seat. The Centre Party of Prime Minister Jüri Ratas, meanwhile, came third behind the Reform Party and Social Democrats.
FINLAND
MOST Finns were probably happier about their ice hockey team winning the World Championships than they were interested the election outcome. The National Coalition Party did as predicted and retained their three seats in Strasbourg, albeit with a reduced vote. The Greens surged to gain an extra seat.
FRANCE
IF Emmanuel Macron was hoping the European Parliament elections could rejuvenate his presidency then his hopes were dashed. Instead, the National Rally party of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, above, won 5.3 million votes against 5.1 million for Macron’s En Marche movement. Nevertheless, Macron’s party will now have 23 MEPs to work with instead of none.
German Greens party leader Robert Habeck and their top candidate Sven Giegold
GERMANY
THE outgoing Chancellor, Angela Merkel, might well have wished she could postpone her departure after her CDU party did unexpectedly well in both the European and local elections. The Greens surged into second place, relegating the Social Democrats to third. The far-right Alternative for Germany party lost ground from their 2017 general election result.
GREECE
THE results of the European and regional elections had a dramatic effect in Greece with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras calling a general election after his Syriza party was given the proverbial kicking in both sets of polls. Centre-right party New Democracy won 33% of the vote in the EU poll against Syriza’s 24%.
HUNGARY
THE complex situation in Hungary with regard to its relationship with the European Union and European Parliament was not helped when the ruling Fidesz party of Viktor Orban won 13 seats and 52.33% of the popular vote. Orban immediately pledged to fight EU immigration rules – could Hungexit be next?
IRELAND
IT had been speculated that Taioseach Leo Varadkar, above, might call a general election but his Fine Gael party’s poor performance in local rather than European elections might stymie that. Fine Gael won the European elections overall but the resurgence of the Greens into second place was the big story in Ireland.
ITALY
THE League and the Five Star Movement, who currently rule Italy in coalition, were split by the centre left Democratic Party in the results. League leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called on his fellow right-wingers such as Nigel Farage to help him change the EU. The League’s success could prompt Salvini to force a general election.
LATVIA
WITH just one-third of voters turning out, five different parties won seats in the European Parliament. New Unity won with 26.24%, followed by Harmony with 17.45%, the National Alliance with 16.4%, For Development/For with 12.4%, and Latvia’s Russian Union with 6.24%.
LITHUANIA
ON a weekend when the country voted in a new president, the Conservative banker-turned-politician Gitanas Nauseda, the European elections understandably took a back seat. Surprisingly the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union won only two seats. The opposition Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats took three.
LUXEMBOURG
THE ruling Democratic Party of current Prime Minister Xavier Bettel gained a seat from the Christian Social People’s Party – that’s European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s party. Each party will have two MEPs after these elections.
MALTA
THERE was a very keenly contested election on the island but, as expected, the ruling Labour Party of popular Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, above, got 55.9% of the vote, with the Nationalist Party on 36.2%. Labour will now have four of the country’s six MEPs – the same number of MEPs as Scotland to serve a population the size of Edinburgh.
NETHERLANDS
THE big loser was Geert Wilders’s right-wing anti-immigrant Freedom Party which lost all of its four seats, although they will get one after Brexit. They could not even beat the Party for the Animals and the senior party (50Plus), which each gained a seat. The ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy gained a seat but were second behind the Labor Party.
POLAND
THE ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) won a big victory in the election, according to provisional results. PiS got 45.56%, of the popular vote, beating the European Coalition group of five opposition parties which gained 38.3% on the highest-ever turnout by Poles for a European election.
PORTUGAL
THE ruling Socialist Party could end their arrangements with the Left Bloc and Communist Party after taking a resounding 33.4% of the vote – the best performance by a left-wing party outside of Malta. Prime Minister António Costa, above, can now think of winning the general election in October. The People-Animals-Nature party surprised even themselves by winning a seat.
ROMANIA
IN a shock result, the opposition National Liberal Party came out on top with 26.79% of the vote. In another shock USR Plus, the anti-corruption alliance founded by former prime minister and EU commissioner Dacian Ciolos won 20.4% for third place.
SLOVAKIA
ONE of the biggest upsets of the weekend saw the lowest turnout of any country in the EU back a new coalition, Progressive Slovakia-SPOLU, in first place with 20.11% of the vote. The country’s ruling SMER-SD party were second on 15.72%, down 9% on 2014.
SLOVENIA
IT was expected to be a quiet election in stable Slovenia and so it proved with the ruling centre-right coalition of the Democrats (SDS) and People’s Party (SLS) winning comfortably to take three of the eight seats in Strasbourg. Premier Janez Janša hopes the coalition will stand again.
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SWEDEN
SUPPORT for the Social Democrats decreased but the party still won with 23.6% of the vote and will have five seats in the European Parliament. The Greens, who are the junior party in the government got 11.4% of the vote.
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