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Macron dissolves French parliament, calls snap election after strong showing for far-right in exit poll
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has dissolved the country’s parliament, the National Assembly, and called a snap election after an exit poll showed his Renaissance party is set to be trounced by the far-right opposition in European parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Results mean "Day 1 of the post-Macron era," says French far-right leader
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy and Xiaofei Xu
Jordan Bardella, the leader of France's National Rally (RN) party, called on President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve the French parliament after a strong showing for the far-right in European elections.
Bardella said the gap between his party and Macron's Renaissance party is a "stinging disavowal" for the French president.
"This unprecedented defeat for the current government marks the end of a cycle, and Day 1 of the post-Macron era," Bardella said Sunday night.
"The president cannot remain deaf to the message sent out tonight by the French people," Bardella remarked, calling on Macron to "take note" of the results and dissolve France's lower house, the National Assembly.
Bardella's call was echoed by leading figure of the French far-right Marine Le Pen, who said Sunday's result showed " a very clear message" from the French people to Macron.
France's far-right National Rally trounces Macron's party, exit poll shows
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy and Xiaofei Xu
Exit polls in France show the far-right National Rally (RN) party has come out on top with 31.5% of the vote, more than double the share of French President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party.
Renaissance, led by Valerie Hayer, scraped into second place with 15.2% of the votes, just ahead of the Socialists in third with 14.3%.
Turnout was at a record high of 45.3%, according to the French Interior Ministry – 2 percentage points higher than the previous European elections held in 2019.
European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola to be re-elected in Malta
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola is set to re-gain her seat in the parliament after receiving the highest number of first preference votes in her home country of Malta, according to Maltese public broadcaster, PBS.
Metsola's Nationalist Party is set to receive three of the six available seats in the European Parliament, according to an exit poll for Malta published by the European Parliament on Sunday.
Her party is part of the European People’s Party group which is the parliament's center-right political group.
Metsola was appointed to the role of European Parliament President in January 2022 after her predecessor, Italian politician David Sassoli died unexpectedly mid-term.
Her appointment sparked controversy as members of opposing political groups criticized her strong opposition to abortion, among other issues.
First projection for new European Parliament published
From CNN's Christian Edwards
A first estimate for the European Parliament, based on 11 members states' estimates and 16 pre-election polls on voting intentions, has been published.
European People's Party: 181
Socialists and Democrats: 135
Renew Europe: 82
European Conservatives and Reformists: 71
Identity and Democracy: 62
Greens: 53
The Left: 34
Germany's far-right AfD party starts celebrating
From CNN's Stephanie Halasz
Party officials at the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) headquarters began to cheer as an exit poll showed the party on 16% of Germany's vote.
Greece’s governing party to win comfortably, exit polls show
From CNN's Christian Edwards
The first exit poll shows Greece’s ruling party, New Democracy, is predicted to come first with around 30% of the vote.
If the prediction holds, that would be almost double the number of votes of the left-wing opposition Syriza party, which secured around 16% of the vote.
The centre-left Pasok party is in third, with around 12% of the vote.
New Democracy is led by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and is part of the center-right European People's Party (EPP), currently the largest grouping in Brussels.
Far-right PVV party projected second place in Netherlands
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy
In the Netherlands, the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) – headed by the divisive firebrand Geert Wilders – gained 17.7% of votes, according to an exit poll.
Wilders has drawn attention for his anti-Islam stance and anti-immigrant populist policy plans, including ambitions to create the Netherland's strictest ever admission criteria for asylum seekers.
The party is predicted to take up to seven of the Netherland's 31 seats in the European Parliament.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte's party, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy(VVD) placed third in Dutch exit polls, receiving 11.6% of votes which equates to 4 seats.
Far-right Freedom Party makes significant gains in Austria, exit poll indicates
From CNN's Billy Stockwell
After initial predictions, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) is comfortably in first place in Austria’s European Parliament elections.
In an exit poll, FPÖ was predicted to gain 27% of the vote, ahead of the second-placed conservative People’s Party (ÖVP), with 23.5%, and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) in third with 23%.
FPÖ were among the founding members of the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) grouping in Brussels.
The prediction showed a sharp fall in support for the governing ÖVP, which won 34.5% at the last European elections in 2019.
Austria has only 20 seats in the European Parliament, but the vote could anticipate another strong showing for the FPÖ in Austria’s parliamentary elections, to be held later this year.
