Seats won by anti-EU parties in the new European Parliament

THE voice of the people have been heard—and it is a cacophony. Strongly eurosceptic parties have almost doubled their presence in the European Parliament following this weekend's elections. Of the parliament's 28 members, eurobashers increased their seats in 10 of the 14 countries where they are now represented and lost just one seat, in Belgium. This counts parties that explicitly advocate leaving the EU or euro, not those that simply call for reform or policy changes. Yet the increase disguises significant differences.

In Britain and France, the issue is immigration, not Europe per se. In Greece, the protest is against austerity measures and the main parties. "While there is a rise in populist parties, this should be analysed on a per country basis and not used to paint Europe with the same brush," says Alberto Nardelli of Electionista, a political data firm. The pro-EU parties retain a two-thirds majority in the parliament. The open question is whether the eurobashers can form parliamentary groups, which need 25 seats from seven countries. (Our story on the election result is here. Our pre-election forecast with Electionista data is here.)