The large political blocs of the left and right centre have lost their majority in the European Parliament, while support for the liberals, the Greens and the nationalists has increased in the European election, according to the BBC.
The strongest block remains the European People’s Party (EPP) and it is expected that they will form the majority coalition which favours the EU.
The liberals and the Greens have gained ground but the far right seems to be winning in Italy and France.
The turnout for these EP elections – little below 51 per cent – was the highest one in the past 20 years and came following years of a steady decrease.
Although the populists did well in some countries, overall they did not perform as good as some analysts might have expected.
The newly formed ‘Brexit’ party won in the UK, while the Liberal Democrats also achieved a good result. The Conservative Party and the Labour Party performed poorly.
It is expected that the EPP will form a ‘large coalition’ with the socialists and the Democrats and have support from the liberals and the Greens.
According to the newest projections, the EPP dropped to 179 seats, compared to the 216 it won in 2014. The socialists and the Democrats will most likely have 150 seats as opposed to the 191 they won in the last EP election.
The election will play a major role in the vote for the composition of the European Commission, which is the executive body of the EU.
Eurosceptics are expected to have a stronger influence in the EP because of their strong results in Italy, France and some other countries.
According to incomplete election results, Matteo Salvini’s Italy League won 30 per cent of the vote and it is now working on putting together a coalition of at least 12 parties.
Both centre parties suffered losses in Germany. Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union won 35 per cent of the votes in 2014, but this time managed to win 28 per cent. The Social Democrats fell from 27 per cent to 15 per cent.
Projections for the right-wing Alternative for Germany are 10,5 per cent, which is less than was expected after the vote in 2014.
Source: N1
