Europe: Center-right strengthens its majority in parliament while far-right gains ground

The first estimates of the results of the European elections show the centre-right has strengthened its majority in parliament, while far-right parties have won new seats.

“The center remains,” the head of the European Commission said. Ursula von der Leyencelebrating the victory of European People’s PartyWhich obtained 191 seats and consolidated itself as the majority group in the European Parliament.

However, far-right parties made progress France, Germany, Italy and Austriawhile the Liberal and Green parties backed down.

Electoral participation is estimated to have been 51%, slightly higher than in 2019.

Nearly 360 million voters elected 720 new members European Parliament,

In an unexpected decision, the French President, Emmanuel MacronHe dissolved his country’s parliament and called early elections in two stages on June 30 and July 7 after his coalition suffered a major defeat against the far-right.

The exit polls indicate that Marine Le Pen National Group The far-right could defeat Macron’s party in a historic victory for the party.

Macron’s decision was a surprise and a huge political gamble.

Although I did toy with the idea Dissolve the French parliament Last year, after his defeat in France’s last general election, few expected Macron to announce such a move, explains BBC Europe editor Katya Adler.

These early elections could force the French president, who describes himself as a centrist and a passionate European, to work with a Far-right prime ministersDoubts about Europe.

For her part, Marine Le Pen, regularly portrayed as Macron’s political foe, declared on Sunday that her party was ready to govern.

The scenario of a President and Prime Minister from different parties working together has been presented earlier France.However, it would be a novelty if the new prime minister comes from the extreme right.

The conservative opposition parties won both Germany in kind Spain,

German Chancellor Olaf Scholzsuffered the biggest defeat, seeing the Social Democrats outpolling the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)BBC Europe editor Paul Kirby reports from Brussels.

AfD leader Alice Weidelsaid the election result, which was around 16% of the vote, showed that his party was set to win in Germany.

In the case of Spain, with nearly all the votes counted, the conservatives People’s Party Won with 34.2% of the votes socialist Party President’s Pedro SanchezWhich got 30.2%.

far right party Vocal received 9.6% of the vote and won three seats, while a new radical right party, the party is overIt gained its first MEP, winning 4.6% of the vote.

Leftist Alliance AddThe junior partner of the ruling coalition got 4.7% of the vote, while its rival be able to It had a poor day, winning only two seats with 3.3% of the vote.

for his part, Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)The far right appears headed for a narrow but historic victory in the European vote.

Brothers from Italyfar-right party led by Giorgia MeloniWon a majority in the Italian vote.

The win should translate into more than 20 out of 76 seats for Meloni, who will lead a coalition government from 2022 Italy The European Parliament is under siege.

The result shows that Meloni has managed to double his party’s representation in just five years, the BBC’s Laura Gozzi reports from Rome.

However, a non-negligible percentage of Italians voted for the opposition Centre-left Democratic Party (PD)Which won just over 20% of the vote, a better result than in 2019 and exceeding the expectations of many of its militants.

Meloni appears to have a firm grasp on Italian politics. Interestingly, he is the only leader from one of the “big” European countries like France, Germany and Spain to perform well in this year’s European elections.

This result marks an unusual turn in history Italy, which is now one of the most politically stable countries in Europe,

Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander de Crooannounced that he would resign after the disappointing election results.

Through tears, she said it was “a particularly difficult evening.”

There was a lot at stake this weekend for Belgian voters, who cast their votes not only in EU elections, but also in federal and regional elections.

The largest far-right party nationally, Vlaams BelangProgress was made, but less than expected.

In contrast, left-wing and green parties benefited the most Sweden, Finland and Denmark,

Socialists of the Portuguese opposition won a narrow victory, but the best result for the left came in Denmark, where Left Green It was on its way to becoming the largest party by defeating the ruling Social Democrats of Mette Fredriksson,

The victories of the far right and the nationalist right in the European Parliament reflect voters’ concerns Migration, inflation and the cost of environmental improvements,

Although far-right parties have made progress in several countries European UnionIt is unclear whether they will be able to actually influence the bloc’s politics.

The majority of seats in the EU chamber where laws are debated, amended, approved or rejected remain firmly in the hands of centrist parties.

to influence European politics, Far-right parties across the bloc must unite.And that is a challenge, given that they have different national priorities and deep differences on fundamental issues like support Ukraine vs. Russia,

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