- Sunday was the last day of EU elections. 21 nations went to the polls.
- In Germany, the ruling center-right and center-left coalition saw its numbers fall to historic lows while the Green party surged to second place.
- A recent scandal in Austria that brought down the government did little to dispell voter support for ex-coalition parties the People's Party (ÖVP) and Freedom Party (FPÖ).
Read more: EU elections - live updates on the final day of voting
All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC)
18:14 Manfred Weber, the CDU politician tapped to lead the European Commission for the EEP, said the high voter turnout across the bloc is the "most important" news from the polls.
"It is a clear strengthening of the European Parliament in upcoming discussions," Weber said. "The European Parliament is the place where the citizens of Europe are represented, and now it must have an equivalent influence on the decisions regarding issues and personnel on a European level."
18:10 In Spain, pollsters said that the Socialist party was in the lead. It looked set to win 18 seats, up from 14 in 2014, while the far-right Vox was seen getting its first EU lawmakers, with four to five seats.
18:01 French exit polls put the far-right RN party at 23%, a slight drop from 2014, but still enough to put them in the lead. President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche got 22%, and the Green party garnerd 12.5%, a 3.5 point increase on 2014.
Macron called the result "respectable" and said that most voters had chosen pro-European parties.
17:59 The EU has announced that according to their estimates, turnout was 51 percent across the bloc, major increase on 42.6% total turnout in 2014.
17:45 Thee Greens/European Free Alliance group in the EU Parliament says they're delighted with exit polls showing a strong result for Germany's Greens in the European elections. Co-leader of the group, Phillippe Lamberts from Belgium, told DW's Max Hofmann the Greens/EFA would use the leverage that European voters are giving them to really influence policies from now on.
"Everything that we are hearing from various member states so far, points to a surge in the Green results — and that to me gives us a strong mandate for change in European policy."
Read more: EU election result increases pressure on Angela Merkel's coalition
"The Fridays for Future (protests) have helped in making people aware of the urgency of change, but quite obviously that's not enough. Because if there had not been a strong Green Party (in Germany) to start with, this popular energy would have had no way to express itself in politics."
17:25 Hungary's nationalist Fidesz party has won 56% of the vote in the EU election, according to pro-government pollster Nezopont. Fidesz was recently kicked out of the EU's biggest bloc, the center-right European People's Party (EEP), over some of their campaign methods.
The Socialists and the leftist Democratic Coalition were expected to win 10% each
17:09 In Germany, the latest projections put Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the CSU ahead with 28.3% , down 7.5 points. The CDU's coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD) is on track for its worst performance in EU elections, picking up 15.2% of the vote, down 12.1% from the last vote in 2014.
Riding a wave of support from growing concerns about climate change, the Green party came in second in Germany with 21.1%, an increase of 11%. The far-right AfD came in fourth with 10.6%, and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Left party each got 5.6% of the vote. Other smaller parties made up the last 13.6%
16:58 In the Netherlands, the Labor Party (PvdA) was leading, according to initial results, with 18.1%, a huge jump from the 9.4% it received in 2014. Prime Minister Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) came in secone with 15%, gaining 3 points on its previous result.
The far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) took a noisedive from its 2014 result of 13.32%, getting only 4.1% of the Dutch vote.
16:54 The center-right EEP is projected to be the largest grouping in the European Parliament with 163 seats, according to figures published by Germany's Infratest dimap.
The Party of European Socialists is projected to garner 147 seats, while the liberal ALDE grouping is on track to pick up 96 seats. Parties in the far-right EAPN grouping could see significant gains with 72 seats, Infratest dimap projections showed.
16:52 Broadcaster ZDF has reported that Germany's under 30 population overwhelmingly voted for the Green party:
16:44 Ireland's Fine Gael party, which currently rules in a minority coalition government, was leading in intial projections with 29%. Fianna Fáil came in second with 15%, as did the Green party. This was a massive upswing for the Greens, who garnered only 4.9% in 2014. Sinn Fein had only 13%, a tumble of 6.5%.
16:39 Germany's public broadcaster ARD said that voter turnout in Germany jumped nearly 11% from 48.1% of registered voters in 2014 to 59% in Sunday's EU elections.
16:31 In Greece, the conservative opposition New Democracy party is the projected winner, according to exit polls. New Democracy is projected to win 32% to 36% of the vote, compared to 25% to 29% for the ruling left-wing Syriza.
The extreme right Golden Dawn and the Communist party are expected to get between 5% and 7% each.
16:00 Initial official projections in Germany show that Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the CSU have come out ahead with 27.9% , but suffered a dip in support of 7.5 points. The losses were even heavier for the CDU's coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD), who came in third with 15.6% support, down 11.7% from the last EU elections in 2014.
The Green party continued to reap the rewards of the coalition shedding votes and increasing concern about climate change. It came in second in Germany with 21.8%, an increase of 11.1%. The far-right AfD came in fourth with 10.5%, and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Left party each got 5.5% of the vote. Other smaller parties accounted for the remaining 13%.
Germany is Europe's largest constituency with 96 seats in the 751-seat European Parliament.
15:39 Local media in Belgium have said that the far-right and nationalist parties are ahead in the Flemish-speaking north, while the Social Party is leading in the francophone south. In Flanders, the nationalist N-VA party has lost some votes to the far-right Vlaams Belang, but is still slightly in front. In Wallonia, the socialists were at 27.2%, followed by Prime Minister Charles Michel's center-right MR party at 20%.
15:22 Austrian public broadcaster ORF has reported in initial exit polls that the recent scandal that took down the former far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache just last week did little to dent the party's support.
The FPÖ was down only 2.2 points, to 17.5%. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who faces a confidence vote in parliament on Monday, saw his People's Party (ÖVP) gain 7.5% support placing it clearly in the lead.
es/rc (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
2019-05-26 17:37:34Z
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