11.42pm: The opposition Ano party becomes the strongest force in the European elections in the Czech Republic

The populist opposition party Ano has become the strongest force in the European elections in the Czech Republic. The group led by former Prime Minister and billionaire Andrej Babis received 26.1% of the votes, thus winning seven seats. This has been a mandate for more than five years, as evidenced by the results of the primary elections published on Sunday evening. ANO belongs to the liberal EU-level Renew Europe group.

The conservative electoral coalition led by Prime Minister Peter Fiala „Spolo” (Together) came in second place. It won six seats with 22.3 percent of the votes. Two other government parties were successful: STAN (Mayors and Independents) won two seats; The Pirate Party lost two seats, but defended one seat. The coalition parties belong to different factions in the EU Parliament.

11.35pm: The government’s Conservative Party wins the European elections in Croatia

In Croatia, the conservative ruling party HDZ (Croatian Democratic Society) won the European elections. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s party won six of the 12 seats to which Croatia is entitled in the European Parliament, the Electoral Commission announced after almost all the votes had been counted.

Members of the European Parliament from the Croatian Democratic Union Party sit in the European People’s Party group. The opposition Social Democratic Party won four seats, and the right-wing populist Homeland Movement party, which governs with the Croatian Democratic Union, and the green left-wing Mosimo (We Can Do It) party each won one seat.

11:26pm: The AfD is now the third most powerful party in Germany in provisional results

According to the provisional results announced by the federal official, the AfD is now the third strongest party in Germany in the European elections with 14.2 percent. After counting 289 regions out of 400, the CDU and CSU together received 32.6 percent of the votes, the Social Democratic Party 14.6 percent, and the Green Party 12.1 percent, the federal official announced on Sunday. The Free Democratic Party received 5.3% of the votes, and the Left received 2.2%.

11:23 pm: Meloni’s party wins the European elections in Italy

In Italy, right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her “Brothers of Italy” party won the European elections. According to RAI TV’s initial projections late on Sunday evening, the largest government party received between 26 and 30 percent – an increase of perhaps more than 20 points compared to the 2019 European elections. This puts it ahead of all other political forces from both camps. Left and right. According to the first numbers, a left-wing coalition around the Social Democratic Party led by opposition leader Elie Schlein came in second place with a ratio of 21 to 25 percent.

11.19pm: Spanish conservatives lead in EU elections – and right-wing populists gain ground

In Spain, the opposition conservative People’s Party became the strongest force in the European elections. After counting 99.65 percent of the votes, the People’s Party reached 34.18 percent (2019: 20.15), the Electoral College announced on Sunday evening. It was followed by the ruling Socialist Workers Party, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, with 30.19 percent (32.86). The right-wing populist Vox party made gains and came in third place with 9.62 percent (6.21). However, compared to last year’s parliamentary elections, Vox lost votes. At that time, the party received 12.38 percent. In addition, the Salaf Party, a small new right-wing party, received 4.58 percent. Somare, the more left-wing coalition partner of the Socialist Workers’ Party, received just 4.65 percent, while the now separate leftist alternative alliance Podemos achieved 3.27 percent. This camp achieved 10.07 percent in 2019.

11.13pm: European elections in the Netherlands: Red and green in the lead, and populist Wilders gains more ground

The Red-Green electoral coalition, consisting of the Social Democrats and the Greens, clearly won the European elections in the Netherlands. PvdA and GroenLinks won eight out of 31 states, less than five years ago, according to preliminary final results published on Sunday evening. In second place is far-right populist Geert Wilders, whose largely eurosceptic Freedom Party won six seats. Five years ago, the Freedom Party had never won a seat and received only one mandate following the post-Brexit redistribution of British mandates.

11.11pm: Right-wing conservative group EKR is ready to hold talks with von der Leyen

After the European elections, the right-wing conservative EKR group in the EU Parliament was essentially prepared to work with Ursula von der Leyen as Commission President. The parliamentary group has also worked with von der Leyen over the past five years, European Council Vice President Asita Kanko said late Sunday evening in Brussels. She sees no reason why she would not be able to do so in the future. However, she stressed that it depends on which platform von der Leyen follows and exactly how the election will turn out. At the time of the statement, some polling stations in the European Union were still open.

The centre-right EPP coalition is likely to hold talks with the Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens in the next few days to agree a loose cooperation that could then secure a majority in parliament for the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen. .

11.10pm: Socialist Glucksmann criticizes Macron’s dissolution of parliament

The main French Socialists candidate in the European elections, Raphael Glucksmann, criticized President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly in Paris. “This solution is the last act of an absolutely irresponsible power,” Glucksmann said Sunday evening on BFMTV. “The president is playing with institutions again.”

11.10pm: European elections: The right-wing Freedom Party wins in Austria

The right-wing FPÖ party wins the European elections in Austria. According to preliminary results, the right-wing populists received 25.5% of the votes, putting them ahead of the conservative ÖVP and the social democratic SPÖ.

11.10pm: The Conservatives are likely to win in Spain

According to preliminary results, the conservatives are ahead in Spain: the People’s Party won 22 out of 61 seats in the Strasbourg parliament. The ruling Social Democratic Party holds 20 seats, while the right-wing Vox Party holds 6 seats.

11:09 PM: Preliminary result: The Christian Social Union gets 39.7 percent in the European elections in Bavaria

According to the provisional final results, the CSU clearly emerged as the strongest force in the European elections in Bavaria with 39.7 percent of the votes. Thus, the Christian Socialists were unable to maintain their results of five years ago (40.7 percent), but surpassed the 2023 state election results of 37.0 percent. According to the figures published online by the state election official after counting all electoral districts, the second strongest force in Bavaria was the Alternative for Germany party with 12.6 percent, followed by the Green Party (11.8 percent) and the Social Democratic Party (8.9 percent). And free voters (6.8 percent). ), the Free Democratic Party (3.9), and the Sahara-Wagenknecht Alliance (3.8).

10:52 pm: The Liberals surprisingly win the European elections in Slovakia

In Slovakia, the expected gains of the left-wing populist party led by Prime Minister Robert Fico did not materialize. Surprisingly, the Progressive Liberal Party of Slovakia (PS) became the strongest force on Sunday. Fico’s Smer-SD party conceded defeat on Facebook and congratulated the „election winner Progresivne Slovensko” and its newly elected EU representatives. The vote was affected by an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister, who was seriously injured by gunfire in mid-May.

The Social Liberal Party won the European elections for the second time with 27.8% of the vote and won six seats, as reported by Slovak media before the official results were published. Smer-SD obtained 24.8 percent and thus five seats in the EU Parliament.

10.46pm: The Social Democrats win again in Sweden in the European elections

In Sweden, the Social Democrats once again established themselves as the clearly stronger force. According to Swedish radio SVT’s initial forecasts, the party received 23.1%. However, the Green Party registered the largest increase of 4.2 percentage points compared to the 2019 EU elections – according to forecasts, they achieved 15.7 percent. This is a notable gain in the home country of climate activist Greta Thunberg, who lost popularity dramatically in 2019.

The moderates came in second, and the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats became the fourth strongest force after the Greens, with 13.9 percent and losing a total of 1.4 percentage points in the last election five years ago. Sweden has 21 seats in the European Parliament.

10.43pm: Against the European trend – In the Nordic countries, the Left and Greens make gains in the European elections

Bucking the trend across the European Union, left-wing and green parties have gained more ground in the Nordic countries, such as Sweden and Finland, and far-right parties have lost support. In Finland, the Socialist Left Alliance received 17.3 percent with 99 percent of the votes counted, an increase of 10.4 percentage points compared to the European elections five years ago.

Commenting on the success of the Left Alliance vote, party leader Lee Anderson said: “I feel like I’m in some kind of shock.” „I couldn’t be happier.”

10:31 PM: Socialists win, liberals lose big in Denmark

In Denmark, according to initial expectations, the liberal Venster party lost a large amount of votes. The strongest party in the 2019 election lost by nearly 9.4 percentage points, according to Danish broadcaster DR’s first projections shortly after the polls closed. It initially fell to 13.9%, and if the figures are confirmed, the party will lose two of its previous four seats in the European Parliament.

The Socialist People’s Party received a lot of votes, 18.4 percent, in the beginning. According to expectations, they were close to the Social Democrats. These results will give you three seats instead of two. The Social Democrats, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, initially retained their three seats. According to initial expectations, the Danish right-wing populists achieved 6.5 percent, thus losing about 4.3 percentage points. Denmark has 15 seats in the European Parliament.