France’s president Emmanuel Macron has called a snap election after a terrible result for his centrist allies in EU parliamentary elections, claimimg far-right parties are “progressing everywhere on the continent”.
Mr Macron called the national election after the far-right National Rally (RN) party won 31 per cent of the vote in France during the EU-wide election.
“For me, who always considers that a united, strong, independent Europe is good for France, this is a situation which I cannot countenance,” Mr Macron said.
Far-right parties were are also set to win across Belgium and Austria, with second-place finishes in Germany and the Netherlands.
So where are far and hard-right parties predicted to win across Europe’s parliamentary elections, and where are nationalist parties already in power? The Independent takes a look below.
Belgium’s far-right Vlaams Belang party, which is led by Tom Van Grieken, is gained 14 and is set to narrowly win a close election, but fared worse then polls suggested.
The Freedom Party of Austria took 25 per cent, just ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party.
Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in Hungary received the most votes at 43 per cent of ballots, but its performance was its worst in years.
Meanwhile, three European countries already have nationalist populist governments. Italy, Slovakia, Hungary are all led by euro-sceptic parties.
Italy is led by Giorgia Meloni, of the Brothers of Italy, which won power in 2022. Her tenure has been described as the “most right wing” republican government in Italy since the Second World War.
Ms Meloni’s thanked voters after exit polls showed her hard-right Brothers of Italy party winning about 28 per cent of the vote in the EU parliamentary elections, ahead of its centre-left rivals on around 25 per cent.
Slovakia is led by Robert Fico, who was shot in an assassination attempt in May. He is the head of a three-party coalition which is widely seen as pro-Putin and eurosceptic.
Despite being described as left-wing, and emerging from the remnants of Communist-era Slovakia, Mr Fico’s Social Democracy party is nationalist-populist.
Hungary is led by Mr Orban, another eastern European leader who is against the Ukraine war and widely seen as a supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
He is the head of Fidesz, described as a right-wing and nationalist populist party. Mr Orban has been prime minister since 2010.