A reader’s guide: What to expect for elections’ night

3 months ago 16

The first national estimates are expected at 18:00. The website of the European Parliament will publish country-by-country estimates, with Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Malta and the Netherlands announced first.

19:00 – 20:00

Bulgaria and Croatia and are expected to have their national estimates revealed around 19:00, followed by Denmark, France and Spain an hour later, and then Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden.

First Parliament aggregation at 20:15 along with France, Spain

After 20:15, a first EP estimated aggregation is expected to be published on the website of the EP. Country-estimates for France and Spain are expected around the same time.

All eyes will be on France, where the far-right Rassemblement National is expected to score a major victory over, among other parties, President Macron’s Renaissance party. It is also set to become the largest delegation in the Parliament, with more than 30 MEPs.

We will hear again from the early countries

Some countries, for example the Baltic states, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Malta, all voted in the last few days. However, their official results cannot be announced until all countries have cast their vote so as not to influence other voters in Europe. This means waiting until polls close in Italy at 23:00.

Any results you see before then will be based on provisional data and exit polls where countries have them.

Politicians and the public, will therefore have to wait for a few hours longer for the European Parliament’s first full hemicycle projection based on hard results before they can begin to open champagne bottles, or commiserate.

A more complete update will be made at 1am

Until then, we have the early projections from Europe Elects, which show that the centre-right (EPP) is in the lead (183), followed by the social democrats (136), and trailed by the liberals (Renew) which is suffering heavy losses (89 seats).

The national-conservatives (ECR) and the far-right (ID) follow suit with 73 and 68 seats respectively, thanks to last-minute gains.

Stay tuned as Euractiv’s newsroom provides you updates.