Voters Move Away from Centrist Parties in EU Election

Eurosceptic parties, which made gains in the European Elections because of strong results by The Brexit Party, weren't the only winners emerging after polls closed on Sunday. Liberal parties improved their results most compared to 2014, mainly because French President Macron announced his En Marche party would join the bloc.

The biggest losers were the Centre-right bloc (EPP), which includes national parties like Merkel's CDU from Germany or Italy's Forza party, and the Centre-left bloc (S&D), which includes the UK's Labour Party and Spain's governing party PSOE. Yet, the centre-right remains the biggest faction in the EU Parliament with 179 seats, ahead of the centre-left with 150 seats and the Liberal's 107 seats, according to preliminary results.

Rather than the performance of individual parties, the political groups that national parties align themselves with are most important when it comes to the European Parliament.

Elsewhere, right-wing parties won an additional 21 seats while left wingers lost 14 seats. The parliament welcomes 28 members, who are unaffiliated or from parties new to the parliament, and might or might not affiliate with an existing bloc. Parties and candidates expected to remain in the parliaments non-affilated bloc have 14 seats less than they had after the 2014 election.