Euroscepticism

Winners and Losers

The long-relished and long-dreaded European Parliamentary elections are over and the composition of the new European Parliament is at long last known. The result is a mixed bag. The various anti-Europeans and populists were kept at bay, but the mainstream pro-European parties can also hardly be pleased with the outcome.

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.

The European Parliamentary elections are over and there is, potentially, a new balance of power within the EU. It is not quite the radically remade political landscape that some had anticipated, but for the Western Balkans it is a significant shift all the same.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron disagreed on Tuesday over who should be the next chief of the European Commission as EU leaders began bargaining over names for the bloc's top jobs in the next five years.

The result, which horrified the main parties, is an astonishing coup for Farage, and shows that many voters in the UK are no longer interested in "fence-sitting" parties and want explicit options when it comes to the EU.

Meanwhile, the election results will change little in terms of the EU bleak perspective of Western Balkan aspirant members.

Oddly, this is not only because of the rise of populism and Euroscepticism. It has more to do with the attitude of the traditional European conservatives, liberals and their partners on the left.

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.

Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) defied exit polls to secure a decisive victory in European parliamentary elections, dashing early hopes among pro-EU opposition candidates.

In the end, more than 45 per cent of votes went to the nationalist, eurosceptic PiS, which has long been at loggerheads with Brussels over judicial independence and allegations of authoritarianism.

A new coalition of Slovak progressive parties have swept to victory in elections for the European Parliament, defeating both the ruling SMER-SD party and an active campaign from the far-right.

The PS/SPOLU coalition of pro-EU parties won 20.11 per cent of the vote, winning four of Slovakia's 13 seats.

Mainstream pro-EU parties on the centre-left and centre-right took a battering in Czech elections for the European Parliament but the main beneficiaries were "anti-system" centrist parties rather than the far right.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis' ruling ANO party came top, gaining two seats for a total of six of the country's 21 seats and 21.18% of the vote.