EU Reporter Election Watch – The results and analysis as they came in

EU Reporter broadcast live from the European Parliament in Brussels as the results of the European election came in on Sunday night. Former Irish Minister for Europe Dick Roche gave his expert analysis when he joined me for an evening when many of our predictions came true. But we had a few shocks and surprises to respond to as well, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

Early on, it was all about what to look out for. Turnout was barely up on five years ago, which was bad news in Dick’s view. But where could parties in power expect voters to punish them -and which countries would buck that trend?

As the first seat projections started to arrive, Germany provided the first surprise. Chancellor Scholtz’s party had never been expected to do well but the SPD was slipping to third place and its worst-ever result.

More news from Germany gave us a big steer as to where we were heading overall. The centre right parties were doing well, the populist parties further right were having mixed fortunes. Political leades of all stripes were putting their own interpretations on what was happening but as Dick observed, “you can hardly blame politicians for spin”.

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Then came the night’s big surprise when President Macron of France did what his opponents demanded as they claimed victory. He called a snap national election.

As the overall pattern of results became clear, the political groups started to talk about the deals they would do in the coming days and weeks. The European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats and the liberal Renew Group would continue to combine forces when necessary to uphold the existing order.

The night ended ended with much still to talk about. Suddenly it wasn’t always a bad time to be an incumbent government. Not in Italy, where the last votes were cast -and not in Ireland where predictions were confounded.

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