As the results of the European elections come in across the European Union after a weekend of voting, the fallout has been immediate in some countries, while in others the ramifications may take longer to fully materialise.
So who appears to be the winners and who are the losers?
Winner: Marine Le Pen
One of the big winners of the election night was undoubtedly Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Rally (RN), which stormed the polls in France. The populist party took north of 30 per cent of the votes to win 30 seats, making RN one of the big forces in the next parliament. The party won twice as many seats as French president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, which had been trailing well back in the polls for the entire campaign.
In response, Macron surprised the country by dissolving parliament and calling a snap election. A big political gamble, Macron opted to raise the stakes in a move that will either arrest the momentum of Le Pen’s party, or backfire and see it gain significant sway in the French parliament. The European election result is a huge win for Le Pen, who has been attempting to make her party less toxic to voters, ahead of another expected tilt at the French presidency in 2027.
Former election candidate jailed for assaults after disrupting Tralee drag story event
Sinn Féin plans to move Northern Ireland remit out of DFA in government
The Irish Times view on what voters think: volatility is now baked in
Half of voters decided on party or candidate in final week of local and European campaigns - study
Winner: Manfred Weber
The president of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber had a good day, steering his centre-right grouping to several wins, further cementing its place as the largest force in the next European Parliament. Speaking after the first results came in, Weber said the EPP had decisively won the elections. It increased its number of MEPs from 176 to about 185 of the available 720.
Weber, part of the centre-right Christian Democratic party which topped the poll in Germany, has strengthened his hand as a powerful figure in the parliament. Five years ago Weber had been put forward by the EPP for the post of European Commission president, but was embarrassingly cast aside due to opposition from Macron, in favour of the then relatively unknown Ursula von der Leyen.
In the last year Weber has spearheaded the EPP’s efforts to hit the brakes on EU environmental reforms, for fear of alienating rural voters. Weber will feel the strong performance of centre-right parties proved this strategy was correct.
Winner: Peter Magyar
One of the most anticipated results was how well Peter Magyar’s new opposition movement would do in Hungary, where he was taking on Viktor Orban’s populist Fidesz, which has been in power since 2010. Magyar, a former government insider turned opposition lighting rod, broke with Fidesz to campaign against the party, rallying against alleged corruption and cronyism in a series of large protests.
Magyar’s centre-right Tisza gave Orban’s party a bloody nose, winning seven seats, to Fidesz’s 10. The result is one of the worst in years for Orban, who has increasingly been an obstructive force around the table of national EU leaders.
Winner: Giorgia Meloni
The conservative Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) topped the polls. The party, which has neo-fascist roots, went from 10 to 24 seats to become the largest Italian party. Domestically the result, which saw the party hitting 28 per cent of the vote, will be seen as a sign support for Meloni’s right-wing coalition is holding up. Elsewhere in Italy the centre-left Democratic Party, which is led by Elly Schlein, went from 15 to 20 seats, finishing in a strong second place.
Loser: Emmanuel Macron
If Le Pen is one of the big winners, then Macron has to be one of the main losers of this election. His centrist alliance lost nearly half of its seats, finishing in joint second place in France beside the centre-left. Macron, who has seen his popularity nosedive among the French public during his second term, will be badly wounded by the result.
He had been withholding his support for von der Leyen’s bid to remain as commission president for another five years, manoeuvring to exert maximum leverage over the German. The results at the weekend will likely greatly weaken his bargaining position there. The decision to call snap parliamentary elections may delay the full domestic political reckoning until then.
Loser: European Greens
When it comes to the political groupings that make up the European Parliament, it was the European Greens which took the biggest hit, losing about 20 MEPs. The party’s grouping fell from the record 71 seats it won five years agoto its traditional size of about 50 seats, suffering big losses in Germany and France. The electorate clipping the Greens’ wings has led to fears environmental policy will slip way down the agenda in the next parliament.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
