Far-right makes significant gains in European parliament elections

BRUSSELS/BERLIN/PARIS (FT) -- Far-right parties have made significant gains in the EU elections, performing well in Germany and comfortably winning the vote in France, prompting Emmanuel Macron to call a snap parliamentary election.

An initial projection by the European Parliament suggests that far-right and hard-right groups were on course to hold almost a quarter of the seats when the body next sits, up from a fifth in 2019.

The French president shocked his allies on Sunday by calling a snap election for the National Assembly after exit polls gave France's Rassemblement National (RN) 33% of the vote, more than double the vote share of Macron's centrist alliance.

"I've decided to give you back the choice," Macron said in an address from the Elysee Palace.

As well as delivering a stinging blow to the domestic standing of the French president and to Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, the gains are expected to help tilt the European parliament toward a more anti-immigration and anti-green stance.

Exit polls put the center-right European People's Party on track to win 189 seats, leaving the Socialists and Democrats in second place with 135 seats, with the liberal Renew group on 80, holding on to third place. The Greens are set to be the biggest losers, falling from 71 seats in 2019 to 52, the estimates show.

The French RN party led by Marine Le Pen was expected to have come first with around a third of the country's vote, according to exit polls on Sunday, in a rebuke to the centrist alliance of Macron, which secured around 15% of the vote.

"This result is emphatic. Our countrymen have expressed a desire for change and a path for the future," said Jordan Bardella, who led the RN's campaign list.

In Germany, all three parties in Scholz's coalition were overtaken by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came in second behind the conservative CDU-CSU opposition. Ultraconservative and nationalist parties also won or made significant gains in Austria, Cyprus, Greece and the Netherlands, exit polls showed.

The AfD defied recent scandals to take 16.4% of the vote -- one of its best results in a nationwide election, although lower than the 22% share that polls had suggested in January.

"This is a super result ... a record result," party co-leader Tino Chrupalla said. "Our voters remained loyal to us and we beat the party of the chancellor, the Greens and the liberals."

Its success came despite a flurry of negative headlines, many of them concerning its lead candidate in the election, Maximilian Krah. His staffer was arrested on suspicion of spying for China, and he sparked outrage by downplaying the crimes of the SS under the Nazis. The No. 2 on the AfD's list, meanwhile, is being investigated for corruption.

The result was a disaster for the three parties in Scholz's fragile coalition -- the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and the liberal FDP. The Greens saw their share of the vote slump by more than 8 percentage points while the SPD garnered just 14% -- its worst-ever result in a nationwide vote.

The opposition center-right CDU-CSU won the election with 29 seats, the SPD won 14, the Greens 12 and the FDP 5.

In Italy, exit polls put Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right Brothers of Italy on top, with 26% to 31% of the vote. The results will cement her position within her three-way coalition and strengthen her hand in negotiations with other European leaders.

"Kiss goodbye to the European Green Deal," said Simon Hix, a politics professor at the European University Institute in Florence, referring to the ambitious plan to hit net zero emissions by 2050.

He said the center-right EPP of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had become even more powerful since it could work with parties to its left or right.

But the surge, at the expense of liberal and Green parties, would complicate von der Leyen's bid for a second term as head of the EU's executive.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party (PVV) won seven seats, up from one seat last time, although still slightly fewer than a Labour/Green party alliance.

The EPP had performed strongly in Germany, Spain, Poland, Greece and some other countries, the data forecast.

"There remains a majority in the center for a strong Europe. The center is holding," von der Leyen said after the preliminary results. "We all have an interest in stability," she added, appealing to the other center parties to back her for a second term as commission president.

Von der Leyen needs a majority of the 720-seat parliament to back her. Final results are expected early on Monday.