In Poland, the biggest EU nation in Central and Eastern Europe, PM Tusk’s center-right Civic Coalition (KO) edged ahead of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, securing 38.5% to PiS’ 35.1%, according to exit polls.
Voting across the bloc started on June 6 and will officially conclude at 11 pm on Sunday evening, when polls will close in Italy. Results will be gradually released over the coming hours and days, but results for most countries can be expected on Monday.
Various exit polls, estimates, and projections, if confirmed by final results, indicate the new EU assembly elected for the next five years will move to the right but also become more fragmented.
In Germany, the projections see pro-Russian and anti-EU Alternative for Germany (AfD), coming in second with about 16% of the vote, well behind the Christian Democratic Union (CDU, 30%), but slightly ahead of the Social Democrat (SPD, 14%) of the incumbent Chancellor Scholz.
In France, according to exit polls, the National Rally is set to win 32% of the vote, one more percentage point than its two runner-ups (president Macron’s Renaissance and the Socialist Party) combined.
In Hungary, the polls have closed at 7 pm, but results are expected to be published after 11 pm. Earlier polling indicated that Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party can be certain of victory, but everybody wonders how well the new TISZA movement, determined to bring Orbán’s rule in Hungary to an end, will fare.
Italy will be the last country to finish voting, with the first place expected to go to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing and Euroskeptic (although unlike in the case of the German AfD, advocating for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia) Brothers of Italy will take the lead.
Eurosceptic and far-right parties have also made gains in the Netherlands and Austria.
As of the writing of this article, the Euroskeptic grouping of European Reformists and Conservatives is projected to take about 71 of the 720 seats.
If in certain cases they work together with assorted right-wing nationalists forming the Identity and Democracy groupings (projected 62 seats) as well as some non-aligned right-wing parties, such as Poland’s Confederation with 6 seats, the AfD with 16 seats, and Hungary’s Fidesz (with a yet undetermined number of seats) this would allow them to disrupt, although not block, the legislative agenda of the pro-EU mainstream in the assembly.
European People’s Party remains the single largest grouping with 181 seats, followed by Socialists and Democrats (135), and liberals and moderate conservatives from Renew (82)
