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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Three days of voting in the EU's 27 member states have seen far-right parties make gains in several countries in what an expert told Newsweek signaled a rightward shift in the European Parliament.
"On top of national political consequences, the key outcome of the election is a rightward shift in the European Parliament," said Pawel Zerca, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
In France, the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, won 31.5 percent of the vote, more than twice the 14.5 percent of the Besoin d'Europe alliance, which includes President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance, prompting the French head of state to call a snap parliamentary election in four weeks' time.
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In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's arch-conservative Brothers of Italy group won 28.8 percent of the vote, quadrupling what it took in the 2019 EU ballot and exceeding the 26 percent it secured in the 2022 national election.
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In the EU's most populous nation, the Alternative for Germany (AFD) extreme right party won 16.2 percent of the vote, overtaking the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Another country where the right performed strongly was Austria where the Freedom Party (FPÖ) won with 25.5 percent, ahead of the conservative People's Party's 24.7 percent and the Social Democrats' 23.3 percent.
As votes were still being counted on Monday, provisional results showed that in the 720-seat parliament, the two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats would have 189 seats, up 13 and the Socialists and Democrats 135, down four. The pro-business Renew group will have 83 seats, which is down 19.
Zerca added: "The biggest winners of this election are the two families of the radical right."
He said results aligned with a rightward trend in EU member states, where radical right parties are part of national governments in eight out of 27 countries and collectively they could obstruct European parliamentary legislation.
"This shift could impact policies on climate, migration, enlargement, budget, and rule of law if right-wing parties collaborate," he said. The result from Austria "may also herald the far-right's participation in the country's next government too, after the national election later this year."
Zerca said there was a risk of "growing divisions and even chaos" within the European Parliament and the European Council, "which threatens European unity and capacity to achieve compromises," especially given the Ukraine war and a possible Trump presidency."
This graphic above outlines votes in the European parliamentary elections where EPP stands for the center-right European People's Party, (S&D) is the center-left Socialists and Democrats and RE is the Renew Europe Group.
The map also shows the GFA which is the group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. On the right side of the political spectrum is the ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists Group) and the far-right ID (Identity and Democracy Group). Also represented is NI (non-attached members) and The Left.
Across Europe, the gains of the right came at the expense of the Greens who are expected to lose about 20 seats in the legislature, The Associated Press reported.
However, initial projections for overall EU elections that the centre-right European People's Party has strengthened its control in the European Parliament led European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to insist "the center is holding."
Meanwhile, in an assessment shared with Newsweek, the Atlantic Council's nonresident senior fellow Carol Schaeffer, said the AfD did not perform as well as expected; that Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party in Hungary had lost ground and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom gained seats but did not win outright.
"So while the far-right made significant gains across the EU, their sweep is hardly uncontested," she said.
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