Europe

Far right makes significant gains in European parliament elections

Author: Editors Desk, Andy Bounds, Henry Foy and Alice Hancock in Brussels, Guy Chazan in Berlin and Leila Abboud in Paris Source: Financial Times

June 10, 2024 at 06:25

Alternative for Germany’s Alice Weidel, left, and Tino Chrupalla celebrate after the exit poll was published © Filip Singer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Projections suggest they are on course to win almost a quarter of the 720 seats in bloc’s legislature

Far-right parties have made significant gains in the EU elections, performing well in Germany and comfortably winning the vote in France, prompting Emmanuel Macron to call a snap parliamentary election.

Early results suggested that far-right and hard-right parties were on course to hold almost a quarter of the seats when the European parliament next sits, up from a fifth in 2019.

The French president shocked his allies on Sunday by calling an immediate election for the National Assembly after exit polls gave France’s Rassemblement National more than double the vote share of Macron’s centrist alliance.

“I’ve decided to give you back the choice,” Macron said in an address to the electorate from the Élysée Palace.

The results delivered a stinging blow to the domestic standing of Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and are expected to help tilt the European parliament towards a more anti-immigration and anti-green stance.

But parties of the centre retained a majority in the new parliament.

Early results showed the centre-right European People’s party was on track to win 185 seats, leaving the Socialists and Democrats in second place with 137 seats, with the liberal Renew group on 80, holding on to third place. The Greens are set to fall from 71 seats in 2019 to 52, the estimates show.

In France, the RN party led by Marine Le Pen won 31.5 per cent of the country’s vote, according to early results. “This result is emphatic. Our countrymen have expressed a desire for change and a path for the future,” said Jordan Bardella, who led the RN’s campaign list.

In Germany, the three parties in Scholz’s coalition were all overtaken by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came in second behind the conservative CDU-CSU opposition. Ultraconservative and nationalist parties also won or made significant gains in Austria, Cyprus, Greece and the Netherlands, exit polls showed.

The AfD defied recent scandals to take 15.6 per cent of the vote — one of its best results in a nationwide election, although lower than the 22 per cent share that polls had suggested in January.