Early results in the European Union’s parliamentary elections indicate a strong showing for Green parties and positive if below-expectations results for Euroskeptic parties, as establishment centrist parties saw their power in Brussels erode.
Pro-EU parties are still projected to win about two-thirds of the 751-seat parliament, according to CBS News.
The anti-immigrant, Euroskeptic National Rally party led in France, according to Sunday exit polls, just ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s center-left coalition.
Macron’s office noted that while the results were disappointing, pro-European Union parties remained in the majority, according to CNBC.
{mosads}The newly-formed Brexit Party led in the U.K. over the Conservative and Labor parties, shortly after Conservative Party Leader Theresa May announced Friday that she would resign as prime minister.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right alliance secured the most parliamentary seats, at 28 percent, with the Greens in second place at 21 percent and the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party projected to finish fourth.
The Greens also performed well in France and Ireland and are projected to win 71 seats, up from 52 in the last election, according to CBS News.
In Italy, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigration Lega party won about 28 percent of the vote, compared to 17 percent in last year’s national election, beating its coalition partner, the populist Five Star Movement, which won around 20 percent of the vote, down from 32 percent in the 2018 national election and 21 percent in the last EU vote in 2019, according to CNBC.