German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition comes first in EP election | Andreas Gebert/Getty Images Merkel’s alliance first in EU election, Greens make big gains Early results also predict strong showing for Austria’s chancellor after scandal enveloped coalition partner.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative alliance finished first in Germany in the European Parliament election on Sunday, while the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany made strong gains to finish second and fourth, according to first projections.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian partner, the Christian Social Union, finished with about 28 percent, according to the projections, followed by the Greens with around 22 percent.

The poll numbers show a tough third-place finish for the Social Democrats (SPD) with around 15.5 percent, a brutal decline of more than 11 percentage points compared to five years ago. That poor showing could imperil Merkel's governing coalition in Berlin, if rank-and-file Social Democrats pressure their party leadership to leave the government.

The AfD scored 10.5 percent, which would be an increase of 3.4 percentage points. Across Europe, far-right, nationalist and populist parties are projected to make sizeable gains.

In Germany, there was little doubt that Merkel's CDU/CSU coalition would finish in the top spot. But the results show the conservatives losing seats in the European Parliament compared with 2014 — an outcome that is expected to be repeated for mainstream conservative parties across the Continent.

In the last European election five years ago, the CDU/CSU won 34 seats and 35.3 percent of the vote, the SPD took 27 seats and 27.3 percent of the vote, the Greens won 11 seats and 10.7 percent, the left-wing Die Linke got 7 seats and 7.4 percent, Alternative for Germany won 7 seats and 7.1 percent of the vote, the liberal Free Democrats won three seats and 3.4 percent, and the Free Voters of Bavaria won one seat and 1.5 percent of the vote.

The projections of this year's results, released at 6 p.m. Sunday, provide a first glimpse of what the Parliament delegation from the EU's biggest country will look like.

The 28 contests across Europe, including in the U.K. which had hoped to quit the EU by now, will fill the European Parliament's 751 seats. That outcome will then shape negotiations to fill the EU's top positions, including the presidents of the Commission, Council and Parliament, and the high representative for foreign affairs.

Germany’s sheer size means that the collapse of the Social Democrats there, with an expected loss of 11 seats, far overwhelms some projected gains elsewhere for the center left, including two extra seats in the Netherlands and one in Malta. The conservatives suffered small losses in Germany, an expected decline of six seats — indicating that across the EU, the center right could hold on to its top spot in Parliament.

David McAllister, a prominent German MEP from the CDU, acknowledged that the party has taken losses but said it is holding its first-place standing.

"Of course, we would have liked to have seen a better result in Germany as CDU and CSU,” McAllister said. "However, we are the strongest political party with a clear lead in front of our competitors and we have contributed to the EPP hopefully being the strongest political force in the European Parliament once again."

In Austria, initial projections show Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's People's Party defying the Europe-wide backlash against traditional parties. The People's Party placed first with 34.5 percent — an increase of more than 7 percentage points compared with 2014 — followed by the Social Democrats with 23.5 percent, a slight decline from the last European election.

The far-right Freedom Party, which was rocked in recent days by a scandal that led to the resignation of its leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, appears to have been dented only slightly by the affair, coming in third place with 17.5 percent, a drop of slightly more than 2 percentage points.

Estimated results from the Netherlands on Sunday reflect initial exit polls showing a surprise first-place finish by the center-left Labor Party (PvdA), which appears to have been propelled to the top in part by the candidacy for Commission president of Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister. The Labor Party was followed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberal group, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CD), and the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD).

The estimated results, posted by the European Parliament, show Labor taking five seats in Parliament, followed by four seats each for the VVD and CDA and three seats for the FvD. The far-right FvD suffered a worse-than-expected result despite a prominent, one-on-one televised debate between its charismatic young leader, Thierry Baudet and Rutte just before the election, which was held on Thursday in the Netherlands.

In Cyprus, Democratic Rally, the center-right party of President Nicos Anastasiades, finished first, according to early projections, with 31.8 percent — a decline of nearly 6 percentage points compare with 2014. The Progressive Party of Working People took second place, with 26 percent, a decline of a single percentage point.

In Ireland, initial results show Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's center-right Fine Gael (FG) party finishing first, with 29 percent of the vote — a better showing than in 2019. The results show FG picking up four seats in the Parliament for the EPP, followed by the Greens, Sinn Fein and independent candidates each picking up two seats. The liberal Fianna Fáil Party appears to have won a single seat.

In Malta, initial results show the social democrats swiping a seat from the conservatives with Prime Minster Joseph Muscat's center-left Labor Party winning four seats, and the center-right Nationalist Party winning two seats. Results show the Labor Party with about 55 percent and the Nationalist Party with 37 percent. In 2014, the parties had split Malta's six seats, taking three each.

This article has been updated.