As predicted, parties on the populist right made huge gains in many countries, but in others, support for the centre-right establishment held, while leftwing parties made surprising gains in others.
Here’s a round up of the key provisional results.
Austria
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he hears the “message” from voters and would seek to address their concerns ahead of national elections later this year, including cracking down on “illegal migration”.
Nehammer was speaking after close-to-final results showed that the far-right party FPOe had come first in Austria’s EU elections with 25.7% of the vote, just ahead of his ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) which stood at 24.7%.
The Social Democrats (SPOe) followed in third place at 23.2%, trailed by the Greens – which currently rule Austria as junior partners to the conservatives – at 10.7%, down from 14 percent in 2019.
The anti-immigrant FPOe’s leader, Herbert Kick, hailed “the history that the voters have written” to open “a new era in politics in Austria and Europe”. The FPOe is expected to top the vote in national elections expected to be held in September, but it remains to be seen if it can find partners to form a majority to govern.
Belgium
Sunday saw triple elections for Belgians who were also voting in their general and regional elections.
The country’s seats in the European parliament were split between the far right Vlaams Belang, the French-speaking liberal party Mouvement Reformateur and the nationalist N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), which all garnered roughly 13% of the vote.
While Vlaams Belang narrowly came first in the vote, gaining ground on their previous results, the far-right party fell short of polling expectations.
Denmark
Nordic countries bucked the overall trend of the EU elections, with leftwing and green parties making gains, while far-right parties saw their support diminish.
Denmark saw a surprise surge in support for the Socialist People’s party (SF), which became the largest party with 17.4% of the vote, up 4.2 percentage points compared with the 2019 result – with all votes counted. The ruling Social Democrats lost 5.9 percentage points, winning 15.6% of the votes.
Prime minister Mette Frederiksen said that SF was the party closest to her Social Democrats politically and that she was happy to see leftwing parties gaining ground.
“In large parts of Europe, the right wing has made significant progress. Here we stand out in Denmark,” she said in a post on Instagram.
France
Perhaps the most surprising response to the surge in support for populist parties was from France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, who called snap legislative elections after a crushing defeat by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.
The RN won about 32% of French votes, more than double the 15% or so scored by Macron’s allies, according to projections.
“I cannot act as if nothing had happened,” Macron said as he announced the vote elections for the national assembly for 30 June. “I have decided to give you the choice.”
On the left, France’s longsuffering Socialist party surged to 14% of the vote, with promises of a more ambitious climate policy and protection for European businesses and workers.
Germany
Center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular governing coalition lost out to the conservative opposition. The conservative bloc – dominated by the Christian Democratic Union – maintained its position as the strongest German party in Brussels with more than 30% of the vote.
Projections showed support for Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats at 14%, their worst post-second world war result in a nationwide vote.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made gains despite a string of scandals surrounding its top two candidates for the EU legislature. Meanwhile, Germany’s Greens, central to globally important EU climate policy, saw support slump.
Hungary
The Fidesz party of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán received the most votes, but its performance was its worst in years. Orbán’s party was expected to win 43% of the vote, according to estimates, and while it took a plurality of votes, it was down nearly 10 points from its support in the last EU elections in 2019.
Péter Magyar, who broke ranks with Orbán’s party in February, managed to build up Hungary’s strongest opposition party in a matter of months, with his Respect and Freedom party (TISZA), was expected to take 31% of the vote.
In a speech to supporters, Magyar called the election the Fidesz government’s Waterloo and “the beginning of the end”.
Italy
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s thanked voters after exit polls showed her hard-right Brothers of Italy party winning about 28% of the vote, ahead of its centre-left rivals on around 25%.
Meloni’s party is forecast to more than double its number of seats in the European parliament since the last election, handing it even more support than in the last national elections in 2022.
The 5-Star Movement came in third on 10.5% – its worst showing at a countrywide level since its creation in 2009.
The one disappointment for all parties will be turnout, which was just below 50%, initial data suggested, a record low in a country that has had historically strong voter participation.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ far-right party was second behind a Left-Green alliance, falling short of expectations.
The Freedom party took 17% of the vote, while the Left-Green alliance, led by the former EU Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, was on 21%.
Poland
The former EU leader and current Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, narrowly beat the opposition Law and Justice party which governed the country from 2015-23, driving it further to the right.
A poll showed Tusk’s party won with just over 37%, compared with 35% for his rivals.
“Of these large, ambitious countries, of the EU leaders, Poland has shown that democracy, honesty and Europe triumph here,” Tusk told supporters. “I am so moved. We showed that we are a light of hope for Europe.”
Spain
The leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) hailed the dawn of a new “political cycle” after his party squeaked past the governing socialists to finish first.
The PP took 34.2% of the vote and 22 seats last night, while the Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) took 30.2% and 20 seats, with the far-right Vox party finishing third with 9.6% and six seats, up two from 2019. Another far-right faction – Se Acabó la Fiesta (The Party’s Over) – made an emphatic debut, winning three seats, the same number as the PSOE’s coalition partners in the leftwing Sumar platform. Podemos, once seen as a party that could eclipse the PSOE, saw its seat count drop from six seats to just two. Ahora Repúblicas, a coalition of regional nationalist parties including groupings from Catalonia and the Basque Country, won three seats.
The PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo – who had sought to make the elections a referendum on the government of the PSOE prime minister, Pedro Sánchez – welcomed the results and noted his party had taken 700,000 more votes than the socialists.
“We’re seeing a new political cycle,” he said. “We’re faced with a new political responsibility, which we accept humbly and with a sense of statesmanship. It’s obvious that walls have lost and we’ll once again build bridges instead. It’s obvious that the discourse of fear hasn’t won.”
Sánchez congratulated the PP but said Sunday’s results showed that his party was “the only governing option capable of confronting the far-right wave that is sweeping Europe and Spain”. He added: “We’re going to keep working to consolidate a Europe of advances and progress.”