
Far-right and Eurosceptic parties have won more European Parliament seats than ever before after voters across the continent left their nations' rulers with bloody noses.

Conversely, left wing and pro-EU Green parties also surged amid the highest turnout in 25 years as the 40-year majority held by the two largest centre-right and centre-left groups of parties was broken.

Marine Le Pen's National Rally inflicted a painful defeat - but not a knock-out blow - on pro-European French president Emmanuel Macron before her party called for a 'powerful' group of far-right parties to join forces in the EU Parliament.

In Italy, the League party of hard-line Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, was one of the biggest winners in the European elections, with soaring support that bolsters his role as the flagbearer of the nationalist and far-right forces in Europe and could also shake up politics at home.

'The rules are changing in Europe,' Salvini said at his League party headquarters in Milan early Monday. 'A new Europe is born.'

The party of longtime German chancellor Angela Merkel, a European Union stalwart, lost ground, although it was the Greens and not the far-right Alternative for Germany that made big advances in her country.

Despite making gains, the vote was hardly the watershed anticipated by Europe's far-right populists, who have vowed to dilute the EU from within in favour of national sovereignty.

While the big centre-right and centre-left blocs in the European Parliament have lost their combined majority, pro-EU parties are still expected to take two-thirds of the legislature's seats.

The centre-right European People's Party was forecast to lose 36 seats but remain the largest group - with leader Manfred Weber warning that 'those who want to have a strong European Union have to join forces'.

He insisted his group would not cooperate 'with any party that doesn't believe in the future of the European Union'.

Far-right and Eurosceptic parties have won more European Parliament seats than ever before after voters across the continent left their nations' rulers with bloody noses

Marine Le Pen spoke triumphantly on Sunday evening as the results came in, she will have the same number of seats as French President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party - the final results were a mixed picture for the 50-year-old Le Pen: her party ended up losing ground since European elections in 2014 when it finished top with 24.9 percent

Italian Deputy Prime Minister and leader of far-right League party Matteo Salvini celebrated the election results in Milan last night - his emerged as the largest party in Italy

Matteo Salvini was celebrating in Italy (right) while in France Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) bagged 24.9 per cent of the vote. As far-right parties courted the youth vote, Le Pen turned to 23-year-old Jordan Bardella (left, last night) to lead her National Rally party to victory

The party of longtime German chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured in Sassnitz, northern Germany, this morning), a European Union stalwart, also lost ground, although it was the Greens and not the far-right Alternative for Germany that made big gains in her country

In Germany, support for Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats coalition was down 7 percentage points to 28 per cent. She is pictured in Berlin this morning

ITALY: Salvini bolsters role as flagbearer of far-right forces in Europe The League party of Italy's hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, was one of the biggest winners in the European elections, with soaring support that bolsters his role as the flagbearer of the nationalist and far-right forces in Europe and could also shake up politics at home. With one-third of the Italian vote, the League is poised to become one of the biggest parties in the European Parliament with 28 seats. Meanwhile, Salvini's coalition partner in Italy, the populist 5-Star Movement, got only 17 percent, shifting the balance of power from last year's Italian election. Salvini said today he will stick with his coalition with 5-Star party, despite his own victory and 5-Star's disappointing third place finish in the European elections. Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini (pictured casting his vote earlier on Sunday in Milan), a major figure among the anti-migrant hard-line nationalists, declared a 'change in the air' and that a victory by his right-wing League party would 'change everything in Europe' After speculation in the runup to the vote that a thumping League win could shift the balance of power and undermine the year-old coalition, League leader Matteo Salvini struck a magnanimous tone in victory. 'For me our government allies are friends and from tomorrow we will get back to work with serenity and softer tones,' Salvini told reporters. 'My opponent is and remains the Left,' he said, referring to the pro-Europe Democratic Party (PD), which placed second. For his part, 5-Star chief Luigi Di Maio blamed his party's defeat on a low turnout in its southern strongholds, and also ruled out a cabinet re-shuffle. 'Nothing will change and we will get going again from today,' he said in an interview with daily Corriere della Sera. He said he hoped to meet Salvini this week to set the next priorities and he expected they would govern together for a full five-year term. With the vote count almost completed, the League had more than 34 per cent of the vote and 5-Star had just 17 per cent, an almost exact inversion of the result of national elections a year ago that led to the coalition between the two. The PD was on around 23 per cent. The campaign was acrimonious, with the League and 5-Star fiercely attacking each other, increasing the speculation that the coalition might be in jeopardy after the vote. Despite Salvini's magnanimous comments, other figures in his party suggested the balance of power had shifted towards Salvini, who is pushing for deep tax cuts in possible defiance of EU budget rules. 'Deciding the priorities of the government will now be up to Matteo Salvini and the League,' said the League's parliamentary leader, Riccardo Molinari. The big gap between the two parties' support may encourage internal 5-Star dissent towards Di Maio, who is likely to face pressure not to make any major concessions to Salvini which might further erode grass-root support. 'In the short term it's not in either side's interests to break up the government, and they will try to find stability,' said Alessandra Lanza, from the Bologna-based economic consultancy Prometeia. However, analysts said that with the economy almost stagnant, the government will face a tough task in the autumn putting together a 2020 budget which keeps the League's promises of tax cuts while keeping public accounts under control. 'We face a difficult economic situation, I am well aware of that,' a buoyant Salvini said on Facebook in the early hours of Monday, after his election victory was confirmed. By Reuters and AP Advertisement

Miss Le Pen's National Rally received 23.31 percent of the French vote, with Macron's centrist alliance trailing with 22.41 percent. Both parties will each have 23 seats in the parliament.

But despite triumphalist comments, the final results were a mixed picture for the 50-year-old Le Pen: her party ended up losing ground since European elections in 2014 when it finished top with 24.9 percent.

Miss Le Pen declared her success a 'victory for the French people', adding that the result 'confirms the new nationalist-globalist division' in France and beyond.

'It is the President and his policies that are rejected,' Miss Le Pen said in a celebratory speech soon after results started to appear at 8pm.

French government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said the results were 'a disappointment for us' but they're 'not a failure for Macron'.

Mr Salvini's Italian populist League party appeared to have more than quadrupled his vote share, from six per cent in 2014 to around 29 per cent in this election according to a poll last night.

It also saw the political return of the country's notorious former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who was elected as an MEP for his centre-right Forza Italia party, aged 82.

Negotiations will start on Monday between groups in the parliament that sits in Brussels and Strasbourg to find a coalition with a workable majority ahead of the bloc's top jobs being carved up for the next five years.

Mr Salvini told RAI state television that his League, Marine Le Pen's National Rally and Nigel Farage's Brexit Party together should control 90 seats and that other populist parties could bring the number to at least 150.

But forming a coherent alliance of far-right parties may prove problematic given the existing network of European alliances and divisions among groups on key issues such as cooperation with Russia.

In Germany, support for Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats coalition was down 7 percentage points to 28 per cent.

The advance of the right was less pronounced there, where there was a strong showing by the Greens, but the anti-immigrant Alternative for Deutschland broke the 10 per cent barrier and also gained seats.

Mrs Merkel's party lost control of the state of Bremen in a regional election for the first time in 73 years.

And in the Netherlands the far-right Forum for Democracy party, launched in 2016 by Thierry Baudet, picked up around 11 per cent of votes.

Only Spain saw the ruling party celebrating, with caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's socialists taking 20 of the 54 seats available.

He described it as a 'source of enormous pride and an enormous opportunity for us but also an enormous responsibility'.

Sanchez is travelling to Paris today to analyse the election results with French President Macron over a working dinner. The two leaders will exchange views on the allocation of top jobs in the parliament when they meet in the Elysee Palace tonight.

Meanwhile, Greens increased their holding from 52 to 70 seats, describing their performance as a 'green wave' in the wake of popular protests in recent months calling for urgent action to tackle climate change.

The rise in support for parties hostile to the EU was partly credited for a rise in turnout in several countries. The overall turnout, 50.5 percent, was the highest in 25 years, up eight percent since 2016.

It means that the largest centre-right and centre-left groupings, the European People's Party (EPP) and Socialists and Democrats (S&D), could now lose their majority for the first time since 1979.

The two umbrella groups won 412 seats in 2014, but are only expected to win around 320 this time – well short of the 376 needed for a majority. More than 170 Euro-MPs, up from 155 in 2014, are set to come from anti-Brussels and reformist parties out of 751 available seats in the chamber.

The Greens and Liberals were also set for gains at the expense of the traditional big two, taking about 173 seats, up 56.

The far-right Alternative for Germany celebrated increasing its presence in the European Parliament but fell short of its showing in Germany's 2017 national election. Party co-leader, Joerg Meuthen, is pictured left last night

In Spain Pedro Sanchez (left) beams with acting Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Josep Borrell after their Socialist party dominated results in the country

Marine Le Pen gives a victory speech (left) last night after National Rally matched President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party at the ballot box, while Matteo Salvini's (right) populist League party won an historic vote share

The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (pictured last night) has called a snap General Election after his Syriza party was decimated in the polls

The election results will influence who could become the next EU Commission president after Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured on Sunday) in November

SPAIN: PM's socialists come out on top in only major left-wing triumph Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was the big winner of European elections in Spain on Sunday with his ruling Socialists coming first, a result he will likely use to wield more influence in the bloc. With Spain the only major EU country where the Socialists topped the polls, Sanchez has emerged as the big hope for European social democrats. With 98 per cent of the votes counted late on Sunday, the Socialists won 20 of the 54 seats allocated to Spain in the European Parliament. They were followed by the conservative Popular Party (PP) which won just over 20 per cent. Newly-emerged far-right party Vox, meanwhile, got just over six percent of the vote. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (pictured at a press conference in Madrid yesterday) was the big winner of European elections in Spain on Sunday with his ruling Socialists coming first, a result he will likely use to wield more influence in the bloc Advertisement

The results were partly seen as an indictment of European leaders and the federalist direction of EU politics during a parliamentary term in which Brussels has struggled to deal with the migration crisis. It has also seen Britain vote to leave the EU.

Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberals and the parliament's chief Brexit negotiator, told the Daily Mail the results showed European politics was as 'fragmented' as ever and that 'European unity is certainly under threat'. However, he said: 'This is not necessarily a bad thing. This opens up a window for others to push for desperately needed reforms to the EU.'

Mr Verhofstadt added: 'We need to create an EU that is capable of defending our interests, because in the world of today no one else will.' The election results will influence who could become the next EU Commission president after Jean-Claude Juncker in November.

And even though Britain is due to leave in October, the appointment is important as the new president will lead any post-Brexit trade negotiations.

The leader of the party with the largest number of seats usually takes on the role.

However, the rise of far-right parties will potentially make it harder for the two main centre-right and centre-left groups to appoint Mr Juncker's successor.

Manfred Weber, a German who is backed by Mrs Merkel, is the current leader of the EPP, will be favourite. But he could be stopped from becoming the new Commission president if EU leaders decide to bypass the traditional process at a summit to discuss the role tomorrow night.

But as the votes continued to be counted across the bloc, populist politicians were already celebrating.

In Italy, Salvini declared a 'change in the air' and that a victory by his right-wing League party would 'change everything in Europe'.

Salvini added: 'I will say to those who have sunk the European dream, transforming it into a nightmare, that I am proud that the League participated in this new rebirth of a sunken Europe.'

Preliminary results: EPP - Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats); S&D - Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament; ECR - European Conservatives and Reformists Group; ALDE&R - Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe + Renaissance + USR PLUS; GUE/NGL - Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left; Greens/EFA - Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance; EFDD - Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group; ENF - Europe of Nations and Freedom Group; NI - Non-attached Members; Others - independent members not allied to the political groups

Portuguese Prime Minister and Socialist Party General Secretary Antonio Costa beams as his Socialist party dominated the polls

Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) is pictured with Fine Gael candidate Frances Fitzgerald and (centre) and Alan Farrell (second right)

In Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (pictured centre), who has firm views on migration, celebrated securing 13 of the country's 21 seats, gaining one from the previous EU vote in 2014

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz pictured during a meeting after European Parliament elections at the Austrian People's Party on Sunday

FRANCE: Le Pen and far-right beat Macron's centrists Le Pen's party received 23.31 percent of the vote, with Macron's centrist alliance trailing with 22.41 percent. The two groups will have the same number of seats in the European Parliament, 23. Marine Le Pen smiles from ear to ear as she celebrates her National Rally's party major victory over Macron's En Marche group Le Pen, who lost out to Macron in a bitter presidential contest in 2017, called for the head of state to dissolve the parliament and call new elections, a proposal that was immediately rejected by the government. 'It is up to the president of the republic to draw conclusions, he who put his presidential credit on the line in this vote in making it a referendum on his policies and even his personality,' Le Pen said in a brief speech late Sunday. But despite triumphalist comments from RN figures, the final results were a mixed picture for the 50-year-old Le Pen: her party ended up losing ground since European elections in 2014 when it finished top with 24.9 percent. The green party EELV came in third position with 12.8 per cent support. In a first reaction after exit polls were released late on Sunday, an aide to Macron called them 'respectable'. Leading allies of the 41-year-old president sounded satisfied that the margin of defeat looked like it would be slender. Reporting by AFP Advertisement

In Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has an equally strict view on immigration, celebrated securing 13 of the country's 21 seats, gaining one more on the previous EU vote.

He said the result shows that 'people in Hungary believe change is needed in Brussels' and he will 'cooperate with everyone who wants to stop immigration.'

But Orban did not directly address possibly joining up at EU level with like-minded far-right leaders such as Salvini.

In Portugal, the ruling centre-left Socialists, led by Prime Minister Antonio Costa, looked to have won their elections with a higher tally than their 2014 result of 31.46 per cent - bagging 32.5 per cent this time.

The Green Party was set to win as many as three of the 13 seats up for grabs in an overwhelmingly pro-EU Ireland, putting the small Irish party in line to take its first seats in Europe for 20 years.

The governing Fine Gael and main opposition Fianna Fail were well placed while the left wing Sinn Fein appeared to be in a battle to retain all of their three seats.

Provisional results in Austria point to a big win for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's centre-right party in the European Parliament election, days after a scandal involving the far-right Freedom Party brought down his governing coalition.

But a good night for Chancellor Kurz turned into a bad morning when it emerged he is set to lose his post after the far-right closed ranks with other opposition parties, to say they would support a no-confidence motion against him.

Norbert Hofer, chief of the far-right Freedom Party, said his party 'will support' the motion, which is also backed by the Social Democrats and comes after the collapse of Kurz's coalition government over a corruption scandal.

Meanwhile, a new pro-EU coalition linked to President-elect Zuzana Caputova has won the vote in Slovakia while a far-right party gained seats in the EU legislature for the first time.

In Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for an early national election following the defeat of his party in the European Parliament polls.

Supporters of the New Democracy opposition party, which has made significant gains over the ruling Syriza watch the exit polls results in central Athens

GERMANY: Governing parties suffer worst defeat in 70 years Germany's Carsten Meyer-Heder, of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) is pictured getting make-up done Germany's governing parties slid to their worst post-World War II showing in a nationwide election Sunday amid discontent with their stuttering performance over the past year, while the Greens surging to second place in the European Parliament vote amid increasing concern about climate change. Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union bloc won 28.9% of the vote and the Social Democrats, their partners in an often-cantankerous 'grand coalition' of what have traditionally been Germany's biggest parties, got 15.8%. Five years ago, they took 35.4% and 27.3%, respectively. The Greens powered past the Social Democrats into second place, increasing their score to 20.5% - nearly double their 10.7% showing in 2014. It was a less satisfying evening for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which celebrated increasing its presence in the European Parliament but fell short of its showing in Germany's 2017 national election. The party took 11% of the vote, up from 7.1% five years ago. In Germany, support for Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats coalition was down seven percentage points to 28 per cent, while the far-right Alternative for Germany party got around 11 per cent of the vote. Her party lost control of the state of Bremen in a regional election for the first time in 73 years. The advance of the right was less pronounced in Germany, where there was a strong showing by the Greens and votes continued to be counted. Advertisement

Mr Tsipras said from the Syriza party offices that 'the result does not rise to our expectations ... I will not ignore it or quit'.

Mr Tsipras credited his government for pulling the country out of the austerity imposed by Greece's creditors and said that voting for Sunday's winner, the conservative New Democracy, would be turning back to 'the darkness of austerity, the darkness of crisis, the oligarchs, the International Monetary Fund'.

The government's term expires in October and before Sunday night's announcement, government officials insisted that elections would be held at the end of the term.

But a long and contentious meeting of government ministers and party officials ended with the announcement of the early election.

Mr Tsipras said he will visit the Greek president to request the early dissolution of parliament after the second round of local and regional elections on June 2.

This puts the election date at June 30 at the earliest.

In the run-up to the election, Mr Tsipras brought to Parliament a series of measures that amounted to handouts and defied the conservatives to vote against them.

They did not, but accused Mr Tsipras of a desperate gambit for votes.

With just over a third of voting precincts reporting, New Democracy is leading with 33.62 percent to Syriza's 23.86.

The socialists of the Movement for Change follow with 7.16 percent, ahead of the Communist Party (5.75), the far-right Golden Dawn (4.86), the hard-line nationalist Greek Solution (4.04) and Diem25, the pan-European movement of Syriza's first finance minister Yanis Varoufakis (3.15).

If the results hold, New Democracy will win seven European Parliament seats; Syriza will get six; the socialists, the communists and Golden Dawn two each; and Greek Solution and Diem25 one each.

IRELAND: Greens on course to change nation's political landscape as Sinn Fein falter The second day of counting in the European elections gets under way later on Monday. The count ended on Sunday in Ireland's three constituencies without any MEPs elected. The Green Party's Ciaran Cuffe topped the poll in the Dublin constituency with 63,849 votes. He is expected to be elected later today. Beaming greens: Green Party's Ciaran Cuffe celebrated a good early showing as votes were counted in Dublin The voting system - single transferable vote - in the European election means counting could run on until Wednesday. The first day of counting saw a major surge in support for the Green Party with candidates expected to take seats in all three constituencies. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he is confident his party will take three seats adding he was 'on the hunt' for two more. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein is facing challenging results in Ireland in both the European and local elections with huge losses in several councils. Irish voters will elect 13 MEPs, however two will face an uncertain wait over when they can take their seats due to the Brexit delay. The Republic will receive two of Britain's 27 seats when it leaves the EU. They are being redistributed among 14 member states. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he was confident of taking at least three seats The UK is participating in the poll, with British MEPs set to attend the inaugural plenary session of the new parliament on July 2. As a result, those elected in last place in Ireland's Dublin and South constituencies must wait to see when they can take their seats. Local council elections were also held across Ireland on Friday, and counting in those races is continuing on Monday. Meanwhile, a landslide Yes vote to liberalise Ireland's divorce laws was confirmed in the early hours of Sunday. Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan is now set to bring forward a Bill to amend Section 5 of the Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996 to reduce the minimum living apart period to two years during the previous three years. The European election count for Ireland's three constituencies - Dublin, South, and Midlands-North-West - started on Sunday morning at centres in Dublin, Cork and Castlebar, Co Mayo. A Europe-wide embargo meant the first results in the poll could not be declared until 10pm. The European and local government elections are the first electoral test for Ireland's main parties since the inconclusive general election of 2016. The result delivered a hung parliament and precipitated months of negotiations between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, two parties with a century-old enmity dating back to Ireland's Civil War. A historic accord emerged that saw Fianna Fail agree to support a minority Fine Gael-led government through a confidence and supply deal for three years. The parties renewed that arrangement late last year, extending what has been dubbed an era of 'new politics' until early 2020. While Friday's elections focused on European and council issues, the results will no doubt be interpreted as a public judgment on Fine Gael's performance in government and how effectively Fianna Fail has managed the delicate balancing act of holding an administration to account while at the same time propping it up. Advertisement

Marine Le Pen speaks to the media after exit polls showed her party National Rally on top in Paris, France on Sunday

Supporters of Marine Le Pen's National Rally party wave French flags after exit polls showed their party on top in France