The hardest-fought European Parliament election in decades drew toward a close Sunday with the anti-immigrant far right and the pro-environment Greens both projected to gain ground at the expense of the continent’s longtime political center.
The four days of balloting across the 28 European Union countries were seen as a test of the influence of the nationalist, populist and hard-right movements that have swept the continent in recent years and impelled Britain to quit the EU altogether.
While pro-EU parties still were projected to win about two-thirds of the legislature, populist parties and the pro-environment Greens appeared headed for significant gains, according to projections released by the European Parliament.
Exit polls in France indicated that Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally party came out on top in an astonishing rebuke of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has made EU integration the heart of his presidency.
Le Pen said the expected result “confirms the new nationalist-globalist division” in France and beyond.
Exit polls indicated the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and its center-left coalition partner also suffered losses.
With the stakes high, turnout across the bloc – not counting Britain, which is quitting the EU – was put at a preliminary 51%, a 20-year high. An estimated 426 million people were eligible to vote in what was considered the most important European Parliament election in decades. Full results were expected overnight.
The balloting, which began Thursday, pitted supporters of closer unity against those who consider the EU a meddlesome and bureaucratic presence and want to return power to national governments and sharply restrict immigration.
Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a major figure among the anti-migrant hard-line nationalists, said that he felt a “change in the air” and that a victory by his right-wing League party would “change everything in Europe.”
Mainstream center-right and center-left parties were widely expected to hold on to power in the 751-seat legislature that sits in both Brussels and Strasbourg. But the result left the two main parties, the EPP and S&D, without a majority in the legislature, opening the way for complicated talks to form a workable majority. The Greens were jockeying to become decisive in the body.
Early projections Sunday suggested the Greens would secure 71 seats, up from 52 five years ago. The Greens appeared to have done well in France, Germany and Ireland.
“The Green wave has really spread all over Europe, and for us that is a fantastic result,” said Ska Keller, the group’s co-leader in the Parliament.
In Germany, the EU’s biggest country, governing parties were predicted to lose ground while the Greens were set for big gains. The far right was also expected to pick up slightly more support.
Germany’s Manfred Weber, the candidate of the European People’s Party, currently the biggest in the legislature, said in Berlin that the elections appeared to have weakened the political center.
He said it is “most necessary for the forces that believe in this Europe, that want to lead this Europe to a good future, that have ambitions for this Europe” to work together.
The EU and its Parliament set trade policy on the continent, regulate agriculture, oversee antitrust enforcement and set monetary policy for 19 of the 28 nations sharing the euro currency.
Other countries voting on Sunday included Italy, Poland, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and Lithuania. Britain voted Thursday, taking part in the balloting even though it is planning to leave the EU. Its EU lawmakers will lose their jobs as soon as Brexit happens.