Matteo Salvini

Rights activists express solidarity with Carola Rackete, the German captain of the Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship, at the Italian Embassy in Athens, on Wednesday. Accused of breaking through an Italian naval blockade in a rescue of more than 40 migrants, Rackete was released from house arrest on Tuesday by a judge who said she had been carrying out her duty.

The Strasbourg court recognized Italy's right not to accept the "Sea Watch 3" humanitarian ship with rescued migrants. The ship, which has been in the Mediterranean for 14 days, has asked to land on the Italian coast.

The European Court of Human Rights rejected the request of the crew of the ''Sea Watch 3'' ship to land in Italy.

Coalition leaders in Italy have agreed on the need to avoid EU disciplinary measures because of the excessive debt and the worsening budget deficit. That became clear late last night at a meeting of the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte with his runners-up and government ministers - the leaders of the League and the 5-star Movement  parties Matteo Salvini and Luigi di Maio.

The European Parliament elections that concluded on May 26 turned out to be a Game of Thrones replay - a long and complex story with a surprising and, for many, unsatisfactory outcome. As with Game of Thrones, some fans are calling for a different ending. They would like to sack the authors and rewrite the script.

Here's a brief look at the results of the European elections, country by country, arranged according to the number of seats they hold in the European Parliament:

GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel's middle-of-the-road governing coalition lost significant ground , while the Greens surged and the far right made modest gains.

Far-right League wins Italy's EU vote. Matteo Salvini's anti-migrant League partywon the most votes in Sunday's European elections in Italy, marking a historic success for the far-right, exit polls showed.

Europe's mainstream political parties took a hit in elections on May 26 but held off a strong surge by the populist right of Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini and Nigel Farage.

Parties dedicated to keep strong European Union will control two-thirds of seats in the new European Parliament, according to official forecasts released this morning.

From Germany and France to Cyprus and Estonia, voters from 21 nations went to the polls Sunday in the final day of a crucial European Parliament election that could see major gains by the nationalist, populist and far-right movements that are on the rise across much of the continent.

As he said, the idea failed because "our people thought differently, and that will cost us dearly in two to three decades."