Despite the success of right-wing and radical right-wing parties, the main pro-European parties will still be the leading force in the European Parliament following Sunday’s election results.
Tusk celebrates victory
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist party won its first electoral victory over a right-wing populist party in a decade, taking the most votes in European Parliament elections, official results released Monday showed, AP News reports.
Many viewed Tusk’s return to power last year as a rare case of a democratic party winning over populist and authoritarian forces. But while Sunday’s victory strengthened his position, the results also showed his lead is slim and support for the far-right is growing.
His Civic Coalition won 37.1 per cent of the vote. The nationalist Law and Justice party, which was in power from 2015 until last year and is led by Jaroslaw Kaczyński, won 36.2 per cent of the vote, showing the continued appeal of its conservative outlook to many Polish voters despite corruption scandals during its years in power.
Two candidates from the Law and Justice party – former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński and his former deputy Maciej Wąsik – won seats in the last election despite having previously been convicted of abuse of power. They were briefly jailed earlier this year before being pardoned by President Andrzej Duda, who supports the conservative party.
The Confederation gets best results
Meanwhile, the Confederation posted its best result ever, coming third with 12.1 per cent – in line with an EU-wide surge in support for anti-EU nationalist parties.
One of the Confederate candidates who won a seat is Grzegorz Braun, the scandalous politician who last December snuffed out candles on a menorah lit in honour of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah in the halls of Poland’s parliament.
Tusk, who was first prime minister in 2007-14 before taking the EU’s top leadership post, returned to power in Warsaw in December after a three-party coalition won national elections last autumn. However, Law and Justice still won more votes than any other party in those elections. Sunday was the first time in years that the party did not get the most votes.
New Democracy wins in Greece
Greece’s ruling centre-right party New Democracy (EPP) won the election but lost more than a million votes compared to last year’s national election, with the opposition unable to catch up.
New Democracy scored 27.7 per cent, well below the 33 per cent set by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and well below the 41 per cent it scored in the July 2023 legislative elections, losing almost 1.1 million votes.
The main opposition party Syriza (EU Left) came second with 14.9%, followed by the Socialist Pasok (S&D) with 13.03%, the conservative Greek Solution (ECR) party with 9.72% and the Communists (9.3%).
Small parties were also able to elect one MEP each: the conservative Niki, the left-wing Plefsi Eleftherias, and the newly formed conservative Foni Logikis.
Another feature of this election was the record high abstention rate, which reached almost 60 per cent. Many analysts in Athens saw the abstentions as a signal to the Greek political establishment.
Winners and losers in Portugal
Portugal’s centre-right party (S&D) and liberal party (Renew) were the winners of Sunday’s European elections in Portugal, where, unlike most other EU countries, the far-right Chega (ID) party was defeated.
Although Portuguese voters voted for the Socialist Party, taking 11 of 18 constituencies and ahead of the Democratic Alliance (PSD-CDS-PPM, EPP), which won the general election three months ago, the party won eight of the 21 seats in the European Parliament, losing one seat compared to 2019 despite more votes.
However, the Socialists won with a minimal margin over AD (less than 40,000 votes and one percentage point), giving them little hope of returning to power in the short term after a hypothetical political crisis caused by the rejection of the 2025 state budget. PS secretary general Pedro Nuno Santos said:
PS won this election and is now the leading political force in Portugal.
The other winner of the European elections, the Liberal Initiative, makes its debut in the European Parliament with two MEPs, receiving more than 357,000 votes and almost doubling its share of the vote compared to the March parliamentary elections (9 per cent against 4.9 per cent).
The biggest loser on election night was the far-right Chega party, which, after gaining 18 per cent in legislative elections three months ago, slipped to 9.8 per cent, failing to secure the electoral victory its leader André Ventura repeatedly promised during the campaign.
