In Finland, the Left Alliance has made huge gains in the European elections.
According to initial forecasts, the Left Alliance increased its share of the vote by 10.5 percentage points compared to the 2019 EU elections and ended up as the second-strongest party behind the conservatives with an initial 17.4%, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported. This is the largest increase of any pary.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's conservative National Coalition Party remained the strongest force with an initial 24.4% of the vote.
According to initial calculations, the right-wing populists, who had been given a good chance in the polls, slipped to sixth place behind the Greens with 7.6%. The Social Democrats were the third strongest force.
This time, 15 lawmakers from Finland were elected to the European Parliament, compared to 13 in the 2019 elections.