The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) has won the European Parliament elections with 191 seats, an initial forecast from the EU legislature shows, with all polls closed on Sunday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen now stands a stronger chance of securing a second term with her EPP group, which she campaigned for, performing so well, despite far-right gains, and losses among liberal and green parties.
In a speech welcoming the result, von der Leyen said that she would work with political groups from the centre left and liberals that originally backed her to win reappointment.
"This platform has worked well. It was constructive, it was effective," von der Leyen said, in a signal that she would not immediately seek support from parties further to the right.
Earlier von der Leyen said that, together with other parties, she wanted to form "a bulwark against the extremes from the left and the right." "We will stop them," she said.
During campaiging von der Leyen did not rule out cooperating with more extreme right wing parties, in particular, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
Liberal parties fell from 102 seats to 83 seats while Green parties are also projected to lose a large number of European Parliament seats, down from 71 to 53.
The result, based on national estimates from 27 EU countries, fends off a challenge from the far-right groups in the parliament that polled an estimated 128 seats, a gain of some 10 seats compared to the last elections in 2019.
The centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) are projected to lose four seats - going from 139 to 135 - and the more extreme The Left group is projected to lose two, going from 37 to 35.
There are 720 seats up for grabs in the EU legislature, meaning von der Leyen needs 361 seats for a majority. Together with the EPP, S&D and the liberals, von der Leyen potentially has 409 votes.
Despite this, preliminary results show the far right made significant returns in Germany, France and Italy.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany is set to win an estimated 14 seats despite a string of recent scandals and polled second to the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU).
The AfD polled ahead of the German government headed by Social Democrat Olaf Scholz in a three-party coalition with the Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
In France, French President Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve parliament, announcing new national elections, after his party lost to the far-right National Rally led by Marine Le Pen.
The National Rally received 31.5 to 32.3% of the vote, while Macron's pro-European camp only received around 15.2 to 15.4% according to French media after polls closed.
Von der Leyen needs to gather together support from a range of political groups, extending from the centre left to the centre right, to have her appointment backed by the European Parliament.
A new avenue of cooperation opened with the Green parties when Bas Eickhout, a senior Dutch election candidate, signalled a willingness to cooperate with the victorious EPP in a speech in the European Parliament.
"What we need to do now is create a stable majority in the centre of the european parliament," he said.
In Hungary, a former ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Péter Magyar, caused a stir this year by resigning from Orbán's Fidesz party to take the helm of an obscure centre-right party called Respect and Freedom (TISZA).
Preliminary results suggest TISZA has won 7 of Hungary's 21 European Parliament seats; Fidesz is projected to have won 10, with its coalition partner the Christian Democrats (KDNP) winning one.
EPP leader Manfred Weber has made explicit overtures for TISZA to join his group's ranks. Fidesz was expelled from the EPP in 2021 - having been suspended since 2019 - but the KDNP remains a member of the group.
A potential kingmaker role for Meloni is still also available after her party topped the poll with an estimated 27.7% of the vote and securing up to 23 seats, an influential bloc of votes.
Preliminary results suggest Polish parties affiliated to the EPP won a combined vote share of 46.4% - the lion's share of that going to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition.
The more conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, affiliated to the ECR, won 33.9%, according to preliminary results.
In the Netherlands, while the centre-left and environmentalist green parties held up better than expected, the far right Party for Freedom (PVV) still came a close second at nearly 18% of the vote.
Continent-wide elections for the European Parliament had their last day of voting on Sunday, in a poll that could see up to 360 million people across the 27 EU member states cast their ballots over four days.
