Far right ekes gains in EU elections, rocks France

What happened

Far-right parties gained seats in European Parliament elections held in 27 countries, Green parties lost ground and the main center-right and center-left parties won the most votes, according to exit polls and preliminary results released Sunday.

The far right saw its biggest gains in Germany, where the scandal-plagued Alternative for Germany (AfD) party edged past Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats to take second place, and France, where Marine Le Pen's National Rally party crushed Emmanuel Macron's pro-business Renew party so badly, Macron dissolved Parliament and called surprise snap elections.

Who said what

"The center is holding," European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen said Sunday night. She called her center-right coalition, projected to win a plurality of 184 seats in the 720-seat Parliament, an "anchor of stability" and urged the "parties of the center" to govern together. The center-left Social Democrats won 139 seats, while Renew took third with 79 seats.

"For all the drama in Berlin and especially Paris, the projections of a broader hard-right takeover of the EU" failed to materialize, The Economist said. And in many countries the far right "performed short of expectations." Still, since the last elections in 2019, the "once-fringe hard-right parties have entered the political mainstream in Europe," The Washington Post said.

What next?

The "first test of the weaker centrist majority" will be to elect a new European Commission president in July, The New York Times said. Von der Leyen is expected to seek a second five-year term.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up