In the smallest EU country Malta, the governing party Labour has suffered significant losses in the European elections, according to initial partial results.
Despite this, Prime Minister Robert Abela spoke of a "solid" victory in the capital Valletta on Sunday. The Mediterranean island with around 500,000 inhabitants has six seats in the European Parliament.
According to forecasts from the afternoon, three of these seats will go to Labour. The conservative opposition Nationalist Party can expect two to three seats.
The current president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, of the Nationalist Party has also secured a seat in the new European Parliament.
The Labour Party's election campaign was tainted by a corruption scandal involving Malta's former prime minister Joseph Muscat.
In the 2019 European elections, Labour was still ahead by around 42,000 votes. According to forecasts from Sunday afternoon, the lead over the Nationalist Party is likely to have shrunk to around 10,000 votes.
Abela promised that starting on Monday morning he would roll up his sleeves and get to work to deliver a better version of the Labour Party.
