Image source, EPA

It has been a night of mixed results for governing parties at these European elections, with groups to the right of the political spectrum broadly performing better at the polls.

Here's a quick snapshot of the key developments across the continent this evening:

• Initial projections for overall EU elections show the centre-right European People's Party has strengthened its control in the European Parliament
• European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen - who is from the party - said "the centre is holding"
• Perhaps the biggest earthquake happened in France, where Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally secured around double the vote share of Emmanuel Macron's group
• The French President responded to the heavy defeat by dissolving parliament and calling snap elections for later in the summer
• In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats and the governing socialists in Spain both trail their right-wing opponents, according to the latest projections
• Populist prime minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, and the centrist leader of Poland, Donald Tusk saw their parties perform strongly
• But left-wing and green parties were the ones to make the largest gains in Sweden, Finland and Denmark

Katya Adler
Europe editor

In Brussels, at past EU leaders’ summits, Emmanuel Macron has at times been accused of trying to steal the limelight.

He certainly managed that on Sunday night. Although probably not in the way he’d have liked.

As votes for the European Parliament were still being counted, Macron dominated the headlines.

His drubbing in the poll by French hard-right nationalists had been expected. His decision to dissolve France’s national parliament as a result, came as a shock.

He had played with the idea last year, after getting trounced in France’s last general election but few expected this move now.

It’s a huge gamble.

Macron describes himself as a centrist and a passionate European.

This snap general election, taking place in two rounds on on 30 June and 7 July, could result in him having to work alongside a French prime minister from the Eurosceptic far right.

Marine Le Pen, regularly portrayed as Macron's political nemesis, declared on Sunday that her party was ready to govern.

It’s happened before in France that the president, who is the country’s most powerful politician, and the prime minister hail from different political parties.

But if the new prime minister were to come from the far right, that would be a first for France.

• Read more here

Alison Roberts
Reporting from Lisbon

Portugal's opposition Socialist Party (PS) has secured a narrow victory in the European elections with 32% of the vote and eight seats, against 31% and seven seats for the right-of-centre Democratic Alliance (AD), which is in power at national level.

With all votes now counted except those cast in consulates abroad, all the country's 21 seats in the European Parliament have been allocated.

Chega, described by its leader as a "radical" party but dismissed by opponents as xenophobic and far right, secured its first seats in Strasbourg, with two MEPs, who are likely to join one of the two groups on the right, ID or ECR.

Still, with less than 10% of the vote, Chega did rather less well than it did in the legislative elections in March, when the party secured 18%.

Not far behind, on 9% of the vote, is the free-market Liberal Initiative (IL), which also secured its first MEPs in Strasbourg: also two, who will sit with the Renew Europe group.

At the other end of the political spectrum, the Left Bloc (BE) lost one of the two seats that it had in the last European Parliament, as did the Communist Party (PCP).

Rob Cameron
Reporting from Prague

Finally, after a day with no exit polls or other predictions, the official Czech results came through.

Former PM Andrej Babis’s opposition ANO party emerged in first place on 26%, clinching seven of the Czech Republic’s 21 MEP seats.

They were followed by the SPOLU coalition of three of the five parties in the centre-right coalition - they won 22%, and six seats.

The two remaining coalition parties won three seats, so in total governing parties emerged with the largest number of seats - nine, to ANO’s seven.

It was a good night for three small anti-system parties: the Communist/populist ENOUGH! coalition, the far-right SPD/Tricolour coalition, and a coalition which is driven (sorry) by a new party called Motorists, who are campaigning against the EU’s Green Deal and plans to phase out petrol/diesel cars.

Motorists will have two MEPs, one of them the controversial former racing driver Filip Turek, whose campaign was hurt - though evidently not by too much - after a spate of photographs and old social media posts revealed his predilection for SS memorabilia, comments about Hitler, and performing the Nazi salute (he says this was done in jest).

Adrienne Murray
Reporting from Copenhagen

With more than 99% of the votes tallied here in Denmark, SF, known in English as the Green Left, are tonight’s biggest winners.

To jubilant cheers, the party has grabbed three seats in the European Parliament - gaining one, and having secured 17.4% of the votes, it delivered the evening’s biggest surprise, becoming Denmark’s largest party in the EU.

Political commentators have described the result as “disastrous” for the Prime Minister’s Social Democrats.

Although it has retained three seats, its popularity has slipped by around six points to 15.6%.

Both on the left, the two parties were once allies, but SF is now seen as the main challenger in opposition, since the Social Democrats formed a government with the right-of-centre Liberals and centrist Moderates two years ago and has seen its popularity slip.

In a Facebook post, Denmark's PM Mette Frederiksen said she was “happy” with the three seats and wrote, “SF is the party that is politically closest to the Social Democrats. And I want to congratulate them.”

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor in Brussels

You could be forgiven for asking what just happened, because as the big election news rolled in across European politics, France's Emmanuel Macron announced he was dissolving the French parliament and calling snap elections.

That decision stole the show, after his Renew party's heavy defeat to Marine Le Pen's National Rally became clear.

But there are many other significant stories both national and European.

The opposition conservative parties won in both Germany and Spain. But it was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who had the biggest headache, as his Social Democrats were overtaken by the far-right AfD.

The new centre-right Hungarian party of Peter Magyar came from nowhere to finish second with more than 30% of the vote, cementing his challenge to PM Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz.

Across Europe it was the night of the centre right, with 189 seats in the 720-seat European Parliament set to go to their victorious grouping, the European People's Party.

Image source, .

However, Italy's Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy won the Italian vote and Austria's far-right Freedom Party FPÖ looks on course for a narrow but historic victory in the European vote.

But there was no far-right victory in Belgium. PM Alexander De Croo's liberals suffered a heavy defeat in national elections, but it was Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever who claimed victory.

Portugal's opposition Socialists secured a narrow victory, but the best result for the left came in Denmark, where the Green Left was on course to become the biggest party, defeating Mette Frederiksen's governing Social Democrats.

In Hungary, Peter Magyar’s Tisza party looks set to come a strong second to Fidesz - a remarkable result for a party barely two months old.

The latest European Parliament results (on 58.2% of the count) put Fidesz first with 44.1%, Tisza on 31.%, and the Democratic Coalition trailing a distant third on 8.2%.

Fidesz are projected to get 11 seats (down from 13), and Tisza seven seats of the 21 held by Hungary in the EP.

Magyar, a former Fidesz insider, toured the country for the past six weeks, attacking Fidesz on corruption and accusing Prime Minister Viktor Orban of turning the country into a “family corporation”.

In response, Fidesz tried to mobilise their voters with a simple message: “Only a vote for Fidesz will keep Hungary out of a Nato-Russia war”. Magyar retorted that “all Hungarians want peace”.

Earlier in the evening, Tisza party leader Peter Magyar told the BBC: “We have a new situation. A new opposition party able to defeat this government at the next general election in Hungary.”

The new Tisza party MEPs will join the EPP, Magyar said, and will fight to get the Hungarian funds, frozen by the European Council over rule of law concerns, released.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, tells the BBC the pro-European constructive centre has held - but, she adds, the results have sent a message on green policies.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter in Rome

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) has won 191 seats, confirming its role as the largest bloc in the European Parliament.

The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) bloc was always projected to come in second - and it has, winning 135 seats.

Liberal Renew lost 22 seats, and the Greens have lost 20. It's a very disappointing result for both.

Right-wing and far-right groupings ECR and ID have stayed roughly the same, with 71 and 58 seats respectively.

As it stands, the EPP, ECR and ID would not reach a majority if they were to work together - but the current coalition between EPP, S&D and Renew would.

It is unclear what groupings the 95 independent MEPs will decide to support. Some of them belong to Viktor Orban's right wing Fidesz party, while others are members of the far-right German Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD).

Bethany Bell
Reporting from Vienna

With most of the votes counted in Austria (and a prognosis of the postal votes), the far-right Freedom Party has won, with 25.7%.

The conservative People’s Party is currently in second place, with 24.7% and the Social Democrats with 23.3%. The Greens have 10.9%, the liberal Neos 10.1%, the Communists 2.9%, and the DNA 2.7%.

The last postal votes will be counted on Monday.

Anna Holligan
Reporting from The Hague

According to the final forecast, GroenLinks (GreenLeft)-PvdA (Labour) has become the largest party in the European elections in the Netherlands.

GL-PvdA will get eight seats in the European Parliament - down from nine in 2019 when the two stood as separate parties.

Geert Wilders' PVV is the big winner and goes from one to six seats.

That is one less than in Thursday's exit poll from Ipsos I&O.

There was a small cheer in the Dutch parliament bar, when it was announced the pro-EU party Volt would get two seats in the European Parliament - up from one in Thursday's exit poll. Volt had not won a seat in the previous European elections.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

She is perhaps the EU's most recognisable figure, but the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has been campaigning across Europe for her centre-right grouping, the European People's Party.

Welcoming the group's big victory - it is on course for 189 seats in the 720-seat parliament - she says it is time to use "this strong majority" to build bridges with like-minded parties that share pro-European goals.

Image source, .

"As of tomorrow we will be reaching out to the big political families," she says, naming both the Socialists & Democrats and liberal Renew groups as prospective partners.

That means for now there is no room for any talk of working with the right-wing groups which include some of Europe's far-right parties. The centre left vote has held up tonight, and Renew is still the third-biggest group even if it has lost ground.

"The world around us is in turmoil - forces from the outside and inside are trying to destablise our societies and they're trying to weaken Europe," says von de Leyen. "We will never let that happen."

Damien McGuinness
Reporting from Berlin

Image source, Getty

Let’s turn back to Germany now, one of the first big results of the night.

Lead SPD candidate Katarina Barley looked in shock as she addressed her centre-left party a few moments after initial results predicted a crushing 14%.

“A bitter evening,” she said. ‘I am very disappointed.” She looked it.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be equally glum, he was not on stage with Barley - most likely because the party will be now be in crisis mode.

The Greens are equally self-critical, with a predicted results of around 12%. Already the long-standing conflict between pragmatists and idealists in the party, smoothed over to get into government, seems to be breaking out.

The mood among the conservatives is much more positive with CDU leader Freidrich Merz shouting “we have won” to cheering party leaders. He described it as a good day for his party, but a disaster for the government.

Arguably the big winner though is the far-right AfD, who did better than expected.

A string of scandals, including allegations of links to Chinese spies and illegal payments from Russia, dented their poll numbers over the past few months.

But now AfD leader Alice Weidel says this election result, predicted to be around 16%, shows the party is ready for victory in Germany.

Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has announced he will resign, following disappointing election results.

In tears, he said it had been "a particularly difficult evening”.

There was much on the line for Belgian voters this weekend, who not only cast their ballot for the EU elections, but in federal and regional polls as well.

Domestically, the biggest far-right Vlaams Belang party made gains, but less than projected.

But it still appears likely De Croo's current seven-party governing coalition will not do well enough to retain its majority.

De Croo congratulated the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), Vlaams Belang party and Vooruit party on their results.

His resignation is expected to take effect on 10 June, French-language Belgian media report.

Image source, Getty Images

Guy Hedgecoe
Reporting from Madrid

With almost 100% of votes counted in Spain, the conservative People’s Party (PP) has won, with 34.2% of votes, ahead of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, with 30.2%.

The far-right Vox received 9.6% of votes, winning three new seats, while a new party on the radical right, Se Acabó La Fiesta (The Party’s Over), secured its first MEPs with 4.6%.

The left-wing Sumar alliance, the junior partner in the governing coalition, won 4.7% of votes, while its rival Podemos had a poor night, securing only two seats with 3.3% of the vote.

A predictable result in Italypublished at 22:29 British Summer Time 9 June 2024

22:29 BST 9 June 2024

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter in Rome

Tonight's result in Italy has been almost reassuringly predictable after the unexpected news out of France earlier this evening.

PM Giorgia Meloni, who has been leading a right-wing coalition government since 2022, has come out on top. This should translate into more than 20 seats at the European Parliament, out of the 76 Italy has in total.

This means that in just five years, Meloni has managed to more than double the seats held by her far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.

However, a non-negligible percentage of Italians has voted for the opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD), hovering around just over 20% of the vote. This is more than it got in 2019, and a better result than many on the centre left had hoped for.

Meloni currently seems to have a steady grip on Italian politics. Interestingly, she is also the only leader among out of "major" European countries such as France, Germany and Spain to have done well in this year's European elections.

This means that, rather unusually given its history, Italy is now one of Europe's most politically stable countries.

Laura Gozzi
Live reporter in Rome

And, at last, Italian polls have now closed - meaning the vote in the 2024 European elections is now over.

Exit polls show that Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party has gained 27-31% of the vote.

The centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) got 21.5-25.5% of the vote.

The Five Star Movement (M5S) got 10-14%, while Forza Italia, the party founded by the late Silvio Berlusconi, came fourth with 8.5-10.5% of the votes.

Matteo Salvini's populist League party has taken a serious tumble compared to 2019, gaining only 7.5-9.5% of the vote.

And the Greens/Left got 5-7%.

Barbara Tasch
Live reporter

That was quite the flurry of breaking news and analysis there for a while - thanks for sticking with us.

We are now poised to receive more news from exit polls in Italy in a few minutes followed by first provisional results from some EU member states and another seat projection for the European Parliament around 21:30 GMT.

The last updated projection for the EU Parliament is expected at around 23:00 GMT, so stay with us as we will continue to bring you all the latest lines from across the continent.

Two groups are facing bigger losses in the European Parliament than any others, the liberal Renew group and the Greens.

Emmanuel Macron's French Renaissance party is a big part of Renew, and while the group has lost ground it is set to remain the third biggest group in the Parliament.

Its vice-president, Iskra Mihaylova, has insisted that Macron's announcement tonight to dissolve parliament won't affect Renew's work in Brussels.

She says "no pro-European majority will be possible without Renew group, we will be in the centre of this majority". And she has vowed that despite the rise of the far right, her group will maintain its values and continue to fight for the democracy and security of Europeans.

Meanwhile, Philippe Lamberts of the Greens has appealed to the other mainstream groups - the conservatives, social democrats and liberals - to steer clear of "embracing the flavour of the far right".

"If we want our planet to be inhabitable, the Green Deal must expand," he says, calling on the other parties not to reverse gear on climate change plans.

Let's have a look back at France's President Emmanuel Macron earlier addressing the nation.

Watch as he explains the reasoning behind his decision to call snap parliamentary elections after exit polls showed his centrist alliance heading for a big defeat to the far right in European elections.