EU elections on Sunday saw striking gains for the far-right as exit polls put Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France and Alternative for Germany ahead of the governing camps, boosting their efforts to sway the bloc at a pivotal moment.
Projected results from France put far-right Le Pen’s party around 33 percent, with 31 seats in the incoming European Parliament, more than double the score of President Emmanuel Macron’s liberals back on 15 percent.
Across the border, the Alternative for Germany party shrugged off a string of pre-election scandals to rise to second place with around 16 percent, coming ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and its two ruling coalition partners.
The stinging blows for Europe’s most powerful centrist leaders meant that the far-right was on course to significantly boost its presence in the EU’s transnational parliament.
But parties on the extreme right remain divided and still look likely to be kept on the sidelines in Brussels.
Predictions are that centre-right and centre-left parties that have dominated the legislature should be able to maintain a majority along with centrist partners.
The crushing victory for Le Pen in France had been widely predicted and her party had already come first in the European polls in the country in 2019.
More than 360 million people across the EU’s 27 nations were eligible to vote, over four days since Thursday, to help shape the European Union’s direction over the next five years.
The election comes as the continent is confronted with Russia’s war in Ukraine, global trade tensions marked by US-China rivalry, a climate emergency and the prospect of a disruptive new Donald Trump presidency.
European voters, hammered by a high cost of living and some fearing immigrants to be the source of social ills, are increasingly persuaded by populist messaging.
Though centrist parties are expected to keep most of the legislature’s 720 seats, polls suggest they could be weakened by a stronger far right pushing the bloc towards ultraconservatism.
In Germany, turnout was the highest since 1979 at 66 percent. But that did not spare Chancellor Scholz from a dismal night, with all three parties in his troubled coalition behind the conservatives and the far right, exit polls showed.
On 14 percent, Scholz’s Social Democrats trailed the far-right AfD, seen winning 16-16.5 percent, and came well behind the conservative CDU-CSU bloc’s 29.5 percent.
In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party was leading the count according to exit polls, the first time the group has topped a nationwide ballot in the Alpine country.
In the Netherlands, the far-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders was beaten into second place on 17.7 percent by the Green-Labour coalition led by former EU commissioner Frans Timmermans, EU parliament estimates showed.
In Italy, the far-right ruling Brothers of Italy party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was expected to come out on top.
Meloni is being courted both by von der Leyen, who needs her backing for a second mandate, as well as Le Pen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who would like to form a far-right parliament supergroup.
With AFP
