A Victory for Euroscepticism?

So the results are now in, but what do the results of the European Parliamentary elections mean?

Well they are certainly the most important elections that the EU has held since voting to the European Parliament began in 1979. Eurosceptic parties did well across the continent, but in particular they did well in Greece, Italy, France, Britain and Denmark. In Greece the radically left-wing (and Eurosceptic) SYRIZA won the largest amount of seats whilst the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn won three seats. In France Marine LePen’s National Front managed to place first. In Italy Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement came in second to the pro-EU Democratic Party. In both Britain and Denmark Eurosceptic parties managed to beat out pro-EU left wing rivals to the top of the podium. Note: I will be doing separate posts on Greece, France and Britain, so I won’t write about them anymore in this post.

A lot of the media attention has been on the success of the far-right, but thankfully it has been largely exaggerated. In Hungary the neo-Nazi party, Jobbik, was hoping to increase the amount of seats it held in Europe from three. Fortunately it was unable to do so and in fact their share of the vote declined very slightly from 2009 (-0.48%). In Britain support for the BNP crumbled into nothing, France’s National Front isn’t truly far-right anymore. The only real success the neo-Nazis got was in Greece where Golden Dawn managed to gain three seats.

It is extremely important to note that the four largest European Parliament groups are all pro-EU and together they received 63.6% of the vote and 498 of the 751 seats in the European Parliament. Although the Eurosceptic parties did have their best night in European election history, don’t be fooled into thinking that they did far better than they actually did.

Parliamentary group	Vote	Change	Seats	Change	Pro or anti EU	Countries
EPP	24.2%	-8.33%	208	-59	Pro	12
S&D	24.4%	+1.62%	186	-2	Pro	5
Liberals	7.6%	-2.47%	58	-23	Pro	4
Greens	7.4%	+0.02%	46	-9	Pro	1
Left	6.1%	+2.09%	42	+7	Anti	1
EFD	5.2%	+0.28%	38	+9	Anti	2
Conservative	4.2%	-0.65%	45	-11	Mixed*	0
Other	21.0%	+7.45%	117	+88	Varies**	1

*They wish to repatriate powers from the EU, but do not wish to withdraw from the EU.

**As it is not a parliamentary group, the parties in this category do not have a defined political opinion. Yet most of the parties in this category are Eurosceptic.  

The Anti-EU vote includes all of the Left, EFD,
Conservatives and other

The difference between the 2009 and 2014 European elections
Colour represents the country's largest delegation
Purplish red - Left
Red - Socialists & Democrats
Light blue - EPP
Dark Blue: Conservatives
Purple: EFD
Green: Greens
Yellow: Liberals
Dark Grey: Even split or other