The biggest loser in the election was Macron, whose Liberal party suffered a major defeat.
Brussels:
Far-right parties made impressive gains in Sunday’s European Union elections, but the ultimate losers were French President Emmanuel Macron and his Green party.
Here are five takeaways from an election that saw Europe’s centrist political groups emerge relatively unscathed and saw a higher voter turnout than in 2019 across the 27 European Union countries.
Rightmost front
Far-right parties in Europe won in many places, coming first in France, Italy and Austria, while in Germany the AfD came second but still beat Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD). Far-right parties also performed well in the Netherlands.
But experts warned not to overinterpret their success.
“It was a good result for the far right, but not a great one. We mustn’t forget that this is a second-round election,” said Francesco Nicoli, a visiting researcher at the Bruegel think tank.
“As things stand, I can’t say that this is a very important driver,” said Christine Vergé, vice-president of the think tank Jacques Delors. “There may be movements within political groups. We don’t know where some MEPs will ultimately go.”
A big question is whether the two main far-right groups in parliament, Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), can unite to form a supergroup.
Verger was quick to reject the idea.
“I definitely don’t believe in unification. There can be no merging of ID and ECR,” she told AFP.
The ECR also includes Italy’s far-right Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose Italian Brothers party came out on top in the elections.
As for the far-right’s influence on European lawmaking, experts seem optimistic.
“The rise of far-right MEPs will only have a limited impact on the EU,” predicts expert Marta Lorimer. “They do not form a blocking minority.”
A weakened Macron
The biggest loser in the election was Macron, whose liberal party was soundly defeated by Marine Le Pen’s Rally France.
In response, the French President quickly dissolved the French National Assembly and called for general elections.
“France remains a big country with a president with great power,” Bergé said.
As head of a key EU member state, Macron will likely continue to play an important role on the European stage.
But she said her Renaissance Party’s poor election performance would mean it would “lose some influence” within its Renew group and in parliament more generally.
Von der Leyen’s return
Analysts agreed it was a pretty good night for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who hopes to secure a second five-year term after the vote.
She will need the support of both the EU’s 27 leaders and the new parliament, but on the latter, data suggests von der Leyen can breathe a sigh of relief.
Her party, the European People’s Party (EPP), remains the largest party in parliament, and experts expect she can secure the extra votes she needs.
Based on preliminary results, Nikoli said he could count on the support of the Socialists and the Democrats, “and choose between the Liberals, the European Socialists and the Greens as junior partners,” and that he could also handle the possibility of more than 20 defections in each scenario.
“I think the election could have gone a lot worse for her.”
Wilted leaves
It was a disappointing night for the Greens, who stand to lose around 20 EU MEPs, but the result was not unexpected.
“The Greens are the clear losers, and so is Macron, but these trends have been clear for some time,” Nicoli said.
European concerns over safety and the cost of living after war broke out in Ukraine in 2022, as well as other issues including migration, have replaced the environment as voters’ concerns.
“The Green Party is not really in a position to respond to these demands,” Nikoli added.
And across Europe, right-wing opponents have successfully channelled frustration with the EU’s green push in recent years into anger.
But Green Party EU MEP Bas Eickhout said the result was “mixed good and bad” and that it was “a bit more nuanced than just saying it’s a big loss”.
He noted that Green parties have been successful not only in the Netherlands and Spain, but also in smaller northern and Baltic countries, including Denmark and Lithuania.
Increase voter turnout
According to provisional EU data, around 360 million people voted in the election, with an encouraging turnout of around 51 percent, the highest in two decades.
“The good news for democracy is that turnout is likely to be more than half of eligible voters, but it is still below participation rates in national elections and is very low in countries such as Slovakia and Lithuania,” said Heather Grabbe, a senior researcher at Bruegel.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
