1. Traditional centre-right and centre-left groups weakened

It was a bad night for the big parties that have taken it in turns to run Europe since the second world war. The centre-left S&D group in the European parliament lost 45 seats in the 751-seat chamber, winding up on 146. The centre-right EPP shed 41, finishing on 180. In some countries the traditional parties of government were blown away: in France, they finished in single digits. In others, they fared better: Spain’s Socialists won comfortably. But the net result is that for the first time since the parliament’s inception, the assembly’s two largest groups combined no longer have the 376 seats needed for a majority. To pass new legislation in this newly fragmented parliament, they will need the backing of the liberal ALDE group and maybe the Greens, both of which gained seats, as part of a broader pro-European alliance

European elections 2019: Brexit party leads UK results with Lib Dems in second – live Read more

2. The Green wave

Europe’s Greens, amid rising public concern about the climate crisis, recorded their highest ever score in the European parliament, winning 69 seats compared with 51 last time. Most spectacularly, the Greens doubled their score in Germany to finish in second place behind Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU conservatives. But Green parties also finished second in Finland, on 16%, and third in France and Luxembourg, also performing strongly in Belgium and the Netherlands and winning their first seats in Ireland in 20 years. The party now aims to use its newfound clout in a more fragmented parliament to push its agenda of urgent climate action, social justice and civil liberties, leaders said. But it did not fare well everywhere: Green parties won just two seats in all of central Europe (from Austria) and none at all in eastern and southern Europe.

Play Video 2:53 Four takeaways from the European elections – video explainer

3. The predicted far-right surge was more of a ripple

Despite their expected strong showing in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Italy, the widely predicted far-right surge did not materialise. Between them, the three current Eurosceptic groups in the parliament have 172 seats, an advance on the 151 they had last time mainly because of the arrival of 22 MEPs from Italy’s League, led by Matteo Salvini. However, they are likely to lose 16 of them when the Italian deputy prime minister’s coalition partner, the Five Star Movement, takes its MEPs into a new group. Far-right performances were patchy: Salvini scored high, but nationalist parties did less well than they had hoped in Finland, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Germany, and the National Rally of Marine Le Pen in France scored pretty much what it did in 2014. The far-right Danish People’s party saw its score halved. The “less EU” camp is, in any event, very far from a blocking majority in the parliament.

EU election results 2019: across Europe Read more

4. The pro-European centre holds

Despite the poor showing of the EPP and S&D, the four main pro-European groups secured more than 500 seats, a comfortable majority. Besides the Greens’ surge, this mainly reflects the arrival of MEPs from France’s Emmanuel Macron’s LaREM party and the UK’s Liberal Democrats, both of which have helped bolster the liberal ALDE group by more than 40 seats, to 109. The liberals will be crucial kingmakers in the new parliament – which will increase the influence of the pro-European French president, who – despite losing narrowly to Le Pen at home – now has something he has lacked until now: a powerful group in the European parliament to help push his reform agenda.

Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) For the first time since 1979, EPP & S&D no longer have a majority together. No solid majority is possible without our new group. By the end of this election night, it will be clear that not the populists & nationalists have won the most seats, but our pro-European group. pic.twitter.com/8Jf7eUauMC

5. Turnout: the big winner

After 40 years of steady decline, turnout was up a full eight points in the 2019 European elections, hitting 50.5% across the bloc with particularly healthy increases in France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Hungary and Romania. This not only reinforces the parliament’s democratic legitimacy (it can hardly claim to be the voice of European public opinion when turnout in its elections struggles to clear 40%), but reflects a gradual “Europeanisation” of politics as national and European political issues, such as migration, the climate crisis, the economy, security become more and more entwined. Although the higher turnout benefited both pro- and anti-European forces, it may also reflect a heightened awareness of the bloc’s significance – and fragility – after the UK’s Brexit referendum.

You can see a helpful breakdown of how the parties are projected to sit here and also on the Guardian’s live results.