Rob Cameron
Reporting from Prague

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s left-populist Smer party has congratulated liberal opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) on winning the European elections.

Unofficial exit polls carried out by parties showed PS on 28% of the vote, against 25% for Smer. However, in a statement, Smer said the majority of Slovakia’s votes had gone to nationalist and conservative forces, which had sent "a clear signal" to Brussels.

Smer said the vote showed most Slovaks rejected the EU’s policy of sending arms to Ukraine and opposed progressive ideology represented by the EU’s Green Deal and its denial of traditional values.

Predictions showed Progressive Slovakia winning six of Slovakia’s 15 seats, against five for Smer.

PS belongs to the Renew Europe grouping, but it is unclear where Smer will sit.

The party was suspended from the Socialists and Democrats grouping in October after forming a coalition with the far-right Slovak National Party, so it is currently "non-inscrits" (not registered).

Alison Roberts
Reporting from Lisbon

In Portugal, exit polls show the country's governing right-of-centre Democratic Alliance (AD) and the main opposition Socialist Party (PS) neck and neck in the European elections, with between six to eight seats each.

Portuguese voters elect a total of 21 MEPs.

The Chega party, described by its leader, André Ventura, as "radical" but dismissed by rivals as xenophobic and far right, looks on course to secure its first ever MEP, and possibly as many as three; it has yet to decide whether it would join the ID or ECR grouping in the European Parliament.

But according to exit polls, it may have been beaten into fourth place by the free-market Liberal Initiative (IL), which could also elect between one and three MEPs.

By contrast, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and Left Bloc (BE) are in danger of losing one of both of the seats they each secured last time, while red-green Livre could pick one up.

In all, Portuguese voters will elect 21 members of the European Parliament. Turnout in this election was, at 36.5%, a little up on the 31% of five years ago.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor in Brussels

We're now getting reactions to the news filtering in from across the 27 member states.

First up is Marc Botenga from the Left, whose colleagues have had a difficult night and are projected to lose several seats, he has promised to challenge the rise of the far right in the European Parliament.

"We need to put an end to the breeding ground that has given rise to the far right. We need to respond to this anger that has been building up for years now. The battle will have to be won outside the Parliament, in the individual countries on the ground," Botenga said.

Let's take a more detailed look at what President Macron said in his address earlier which included his surprise announcement to hold snap parliamentary elections.

"This is a serious, heavy decision, but above all it is an act of trust," he said. He said he trusts in "the capacity of French people to make the best choice for them and for future generations".

"Let the sovereign people speak," he said. He added that France needed a "clear majority in order to be able to work with serenity and harmony" and that he had "heard" the message of the French and their concerns.

"I won't leave them without an answer," he added.

French snap election a huge surprisepublished at 20:34 British Summer Time 9 June 2024

20:34 BST 9 June 2024

Hugh Schofield
Reporting from Paris

Image source, POOL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Calling a snap election is a huge surprise for the country, and a huge risk for President Emmanuel Macron.

He could have reacted differently. He could have just kept going, explaining the hard-right’s massive victory as a European aberration which would be corrected at more important elections.

He could have trusted the impending Euro football championship and above all the Paris Olympics to keep people’s minds off politics for a couple of months.

That was certainly how the Paris commentariat thought he would take his party’s rout.

But one can only assume the president had seen this coming, and planned his response in advance. Certainly, the result was an almost exact replica of the polls, so he would have had plenty of time to consider his options.

The fact is that he is stuck. He has no majority in the National Assembly, so getting any bill through is already a struggle. With most of the country now so clearly against him, any new legislation - for example the upcoming budget - could have proved explosive.

So he has plumped for "clarity". If the hard-right has the votes, then - he says - they should be given the chance to govern.

Obviously the president will hope his own Renaissance party can mount a fight back at the elections on 30 June and 7 July. Or that other parties will do better too. But he must appreciate that the odds favour another victory for the Rassemblement National - maybe not one so sweeping as today’s, but enough for it to become the biggest party in parliament.

At which point we might well have a Prime Minister Le Pen. Or Bardella.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has just welcomed President Emmanuel Macron's decision to call a snap election.

"This historic vote shows that when people vote, people win," she told a cheering crowd of supporters at a rally in Paris.

"We are ready to take over power if the French give us their trust in the upcoming national elections," she added.

"We are ready to exercise power, to end mass migration, to prioritise purchasing power, ready to make France live again," she said.

Adam Easton
Reporting from Warsaw

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said Poland is a beacon of hope for Europe after an exit poll projected his centrist, pro-EU Civic Coalition (KO) political grouping had won the European Parliament election.

Supporters cheered and chanted "Donald Tusk" at KO’s election night in Warsaw as the exit poll was announced.

“We have shown today that we are a beacon of hope for Europe, that we will be able to fight for Poland’s interests in Europe like nobody else,” he said.

The pro-EU KO won 38.2%, ahead of the main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party on 33.9%.

If the exit poll is confirmed, Tusk will have ended a run that’s seen the Eurosceptic PiS win the last nine elections in a row, including October’s parliamentary election and April’s local elections - PiS’s lack of coalition partners saw it lose power in both.

The small far-right Confederation party was third with 11.9%, recording a sizeable boost in support from its 2019 result of 4.55%.

The two junior partners in Tusk’s coalition, the agrarian conservative Third Way and the Left, came in fourth and fifth with 8.2% and 6.6% respectively.

President Emmanuel Macron has said he is dissolving parliament and is calling for new elections following the performance of the far-right National Rally in the European elections.

He has called for parliamentary elections to be held on 30 June and 7 July.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor in Brusssels

It's still early days with exit polls coming in from around Europe, but we've had our first projection of what the next European Parliament will look like.

Image source, .

As you can see, the centre-right European People's Party has extended its dominance over the Parliament, while the Greens and centrist Renew have fallen back, and the two right-wing groups which are home to most of the far-right parties have advanced slightly.

Germany's far-right AfD has been turfed out of the Identity & Democracy grouping because of a series of scandals, so for now it is part of the unattached group of independents.

The big space down the right-hand side is for 51 MEPs who are not yet part of any political groups.

Guy Hedgecoe
Reporting from Madrid

Spanish exit polls show that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) are vying for first place with the conservative People’s Party (PP).

The PSOE has between 20-22 seats (compared to 21 in 2019), according to a poll by Sigma Dos for national broadcaster RTVE, while the PP has 21-23 (compared to 13 in 2019).

The hard-right Vox is in third place, with 6-7 seats, a slight gain on the last election.

The left-wing Sumar alliance, the junior partner in the Spanish government, has 3-4 seats, while Podemos has 2-3, according to the same poll.

Adrienne Murray
Reporting from Copenhagen

Voting has now ended in Denmark and the first exit polls have been released.

In a major twist, and against the trend seen elsewhere in Europe, it’s a left-wing party that is now predicted to be the biggest winner of the night.

According to an exit poll by national broadcast DR, it’s SF - the Socialist People's Party - which goes by the English name the Green Left - which is expected to win the largest chunk of the votes, with 18.4%, and to score three out of the 15 Danish seats in the European Parliament.

That would put it ahead of the prime minister’s party, the Social Democrats - which is expected to retain its three seats, but see its share of the popular vote fall.

But it’s going to be close.

A second exit poll, by TV2, places SF second with 17.1% of the vote and the Social Democrats on 18%.

Both exit polls suggest a blow to the centre-right party, The Liberals. It’s a partner in the coalition government, and is expected to lose two of its four seats. This election was always expected to be a test for the sitting coalition government which straddles the political centre, and has seen its popularity flag in recent months.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter in Rome

In a speech after the exit polls came out, Socialist rising star Raphaël Glucksmann said that while he was "proud" of his third place, he was "in no mood to celebrate" and pointed out that the far right - by which he meant a combination of Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) and Eric Zemmour's Reconquest party - now had 40% of the share of the vote in France.

"We are living through a time of upheaval," Glucksmann said.

However, he added: "We are forced to tirelessly fight on... We won't party. We will prepare for what's next. We will work, work and work."

Indeed, any French party who wants to take on the RN will have to roll up their sleeves.

As a reminder, the head of the RN list in the election, Jordan Bardella, is only 28 years old - and he has already managed to lead Marine Le Pen's RN party to the dizzying height of garnering more than 30% of the votes, the highest ever achieved by the party in a European election.

Some have suggested Le Pen might feel threatened by Bardella's success and could be worried he would steal the spotlight away from her ahead of the next general election in 2027.

Even if that were true, tonight's European election results show it might be too late for his star to dim.

Image source, Reuters

Speaking to supporters, National Rally list chief Jordan Bardella has said that French people have given a "verdict without appeal" by giving his party more than 30% of the votes. This is more than double what President Emmanuel Macron's party managed to achieve (15%).

French media have reported that President Macron will take the unusual step of addressing the nation later this evening.

"We welcome this verdict with humility and with seriousness. Our fellow Frenchmen have expressed a desire for change. This clear message for European leaders shows the will of the French to see Europe change course," Bardella said.

"A wind of hope is blowing over France, and it's just the beginning."

"The president cannot stay deaf to the message sent tonight by the French people," he added.

He also said President Macron should dissolve the government and call a general election.

French exit polls say Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) list, led by Jordan Bardella, has come out top with more than 30% of the vote. Never have the RN managed to get as high a share of vote as that.

President Macron's Renaissance party, led by Valérie Hayer, has come second with 15.2%.

The Socialists, under Raphaël Glucksmann, have managed 14%.

Eric Zemmour's far-right Reconquest has managed 5.5%, while left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) has got 8.3%.

And it looks like the Greens only hit 5.2% - just over the 5% required to make it to the European Parliament.

Turnout in France was roughly 51%, so a bit higher than 2019's 50.12%.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor in Brussels

As we've explained, national parties join broader European groupings in the Parliament, and as Germany has 96 seats, this graphic below is key to the whole election.

The conservative CDU/CSU parties currently in opposition are part of the centre-right European People's Party who are expected to have the most seats in the next parliament, 30 seats from Germany is a big chunk.

Image source, .

The Greens are part of a group with other German parties, so they come out ahead of the SPD in seats, even if they came fourth.

But there are 18 seats we've labelled as Independents and that's because the AfD, who are on course to win 16.3% of the vote, according to exit polls, have been thrown out of their original Identity & Democracy grouping. The scandals that beset the top two AfD candidates apparently didn't mean a great deal to their voters.

'Bitter defeat' for German ruling partypublished at 18:55 British Summer Time 9 June 2024

18:55 BST 9 June 2024

Damien McGuinness
Reporting from Berlin

“Disaster” and “bitter defeat” are the words most often being used to describe what these results mean for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his centre-left SPD party, predicted to get 14%.

His face was on posters all over the country — even though he was not actually running in the EU elections — meaning that those quiet voices in his party already asking whether he is the right person to lead them in next year’s national election will grow louder.

These results are also a blow for his governing partners, the Greens, predicted to get 12.4%. The liberal FDP is hovering around a meagre 5%, symbolically important because this is the threshold needed to stay in the German parliament.

The opposition conservatives may have won the most votes. But given how unpopular the government is, a predicted 30% is not exactly a triumph either. Only 1.5% more than 2019, seen as a poor result back then. The real winners are the radical populists: the increasingly nationalistic far-right AfD, euphoric to be in second place, despite toxic scandals that shocked mainstream voters; and a brand new anti-migrant far-left party, BSW, led by charismatic left-wing firebrand Sahra Wagenknecht.

Alison Roberts
Reporting from Lisbon

With just under an hour to go before the close of polls in mainland Portugal and Madeira (they close in the Azores another hour after that) just over 34% of registered Portuguese voters had cast their ballots, according to official figures.

But that's already above the 31% seen in 2019: turnout in European elections here is traditionally low, despite the Portuguese claiming to be among the most Europhile nations.

These elections take place just three months after a snap legislative election handed a plurality of seats in the national parliament to a right-of-centre coalition whose two parties are both in Ursula von der Leyen's European People's Party grouping.

So the focus here is on whether the main opposition Socialist Party can overturn that result – and whether the right-wing Chega party, which in March more than quadrupled its tally of MPs, can now built on that result and see its first ever MEPs elected.

There are 17 parties and coalitions standing candidates in these elections in Portugal, the same number as in 2019.

Adrienne Murray
Reporting from Copenhagen

Image source, Reuters

There’s less than an hour to go before polling stations close here in Denmark, where almost 170 politicians from 11 different parties are competing for 15 seats in the EU Parliament.

Exit polls will only be released at 20:00 (18:00 GMT) and the first results forecast at 23:00. Candidates and party members are already gathering for election results parties.

Missing from the events this evening, however, is Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Danish media report that she will not participate in the Social Democrats' election party and is “still not well enough”.

The prime minister has been left “shaken” and suffering from a “minor whiplash”, following an assault in central Copenhagen on Friday evening, in which she was struck on her upper right arm.

Police say the incident was not politically motivated and a 39-year-old Polish man has been charged with violence against a person in public service, at a court hearing held on Saturday.

Earlier on Sunday, Mette Frederiksen urged Danes to vote in a Facebook post: “The EU needs Danish ideas. And Denmark needs a strong EU if we are going to solve the big challenges together. It matters who you vote for today. And every vote counts.”

Adam Easton
Reporting from Warsaw

With fours hours left before voting ends in Poland (1700 local time) turnout was 28.2%, according to the state electoral commission.

That's down from 32.5% at the same time in 2019. But 2019 was an anomaly - turnout ended up at 45.7%.

All three other European elections saw turnout at 25% or below when voting ended.

Wilders set for second-place setback in Dutch votepublished at 18:14 British Summer Time 9 June 2024

18:14 BST 9 June 2024

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, REMKO DE WAAL/EPA-EFE/REX

We already had an idea that anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders was heading for second place, because there was a Dutch exit poll after the vote on Thursday.

But the EU's estimates do suggest a clear-cut victory for the Green-Labour alliance with 21.6% of the vote - well ahead of Wilders' Freedom Party on 17.7%.

The only other party to top 10% of the vote is the liberal-conservative VVD, which is part of the centre-right grouping in the European Parliament.

Wilders did only have one seat in Parliament before, and is now heading for seven, so that is a big gain for his party.

But considering he came top in national elections last November and is on the way to completing a coalition government, it feels more like a setback for the broader far right in Europe.

It's also a vindication of Labour's Frans Timmermans, a former big figure in the European Commission, who formed a centre-left alliance with the Green Links party and the two parties now expect to have four seats each.