Three of the EU's six founding members held elections this weekend that centered on local issues but will resonate beyond.

As different as Belgium's local council elections, the national vote in Luxembourg or a regional one in Bavaria that Angela Merkel watched closely were from each other, one common message emerged from all of them: Voters are increasingly saying “no” to establishment parties, whichever part of the political spectrum they hail from.

Fresh faces did better than ever, while legacy players struggled to sell themselves to electorates. These electoral verdicts offer insights into the state of play ahead of next year's European election. Here are five.

1. Green wave riseth

Green parties didn’t win any significant election, yet they won the weekend. Everywhere one looks the Greens made progress, as voters searched for new and authentic-seeming candidates.

In Bavaria the Greens came in first in the state’s seven biggest cities, polling around 30 percent there. Overall, they vanquished the Social Democrats (SPD) and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to finish second to the Christian Social Union (CSU).

In Luxembourg two Green parties (the traditional Greens and a pirate party) won a combined 23 percent, behind the center-right CSV on around 27 percent of the vote.

In local ballots in Belgium, Greens (Ecolo-Groen) finished second in Brussels city elections, and are poised to become part of a new left-wing ruling coalition. Overall the Greens finished first in four Brussels Region districts, including the EU district of Ixelles, and won up to 29 percent of the vote in other districts.

Socialists lost nearly everywhere this weekend. In Bavaria, the SPD attracted just one in 10 voters. That’s down by half since 2014, and by two-thirds since 1998. The Luxembourg Socialist Workers Party achieved its worst result in a century, and after running Antwerp for decades Social Democrats won only 11 percent to come in a dismal third place.

2. Crumbling center gains power

Even as right-wing voters shifted further rightward in Bavaria (from CSU to AfD) and left-wing voters shifted leftward (from the SPD to Greens), in the end the new government in the southwestern German region will likely have to move into the center. While conservatives won around 64 percent of the vote, the CSU can no longer govern alone (and has ruled out partnering with the AfD). The CSU will therefore be forced to govern with either the Greens, the liberal Free Democratic Party (if the FDP manages to clear the 5-percent threshold to enter the state parliament) or an association of right-wing independents known as the Free Voters.

3. Some roads lead to Brussels

The weekend elections will have an impact on the coming game of musical chairs atop the EU in 2019.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and the Bavarian CSU heavyweight Manfred Weber, who leads the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, are potentially in line for top jobs in Brussels next year.

In Weber's case, he is openly campaigning to be the next Commission president, replacing Jean-Claude Juncker. He needs not only to win the EPP nomination and for the EPP to finish first among voters in 2019: He also needs Angela Merkel’s support. The CSU's drubbing on Sunday doesn't help him make the case in Berlin or to EPP delegates in Helsinki who next month will choose their candidate.

Bettel appears able to continue his coalition government, despite his liberal party finishing with just under 17 percent of the vote (the three governing parties are set to win 31 seats in a parliament of 60). But he has other options: He is talked about as a possible replacement for Guy Verhofstadt, the current leader of the liberal ALDE bloc in 2019, and a possible compromise candidate for the Commission presidency.

4. Et tu, Angela Merkel?

With the two junior partners in the current German grand coalition government, the CSU and SPD, both badly battered after this weekend, eyes turn to Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and how she sees her options going forward.

The CSU is set to submerge into internal reckoning in the wake of this historically poor performance. The center-left Social Democrats are getting thrashed in national opinion polls (sometimes as low as 15 percent and fourth place) and state elections.

Taken together, there is growing talk of a possible change in the coalition government. Either because a party like the SPD withdraws, or key figures like the CSU leader and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer are forced out of government. The question then is whether Merkel can do a deal with the Greens or the liberal FDP, lead a minority government, or be forced to an early election.

5. Voters care, if you give them reason to

Turnout was up sharply in Bavaria to around 72 percent from 63 percent. More non-Belgians registered to vote in expat-heavy Brussels than in past elections, despite local officials putting unnecessary obstacles in their way.

In Luxembourg the strange situation remains that the country deliberately courts expat residents, who make up 48 percent of the population — but in the Grand Duchy's compulsory voting system, that means half the country is forced to vote and the other half is prevented from doing so. Luxembourg shows a democracy deficit isn't only an EU problem.

Overall this weekend’s elections are proof that voters will turn out when given real choices, a lesson for the EU as it strains to generate interest in the 2019 European Parliament election with a €30-million advertising campaign called “This Time I’m Voting.”

This article has been updated.