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LAST UPDATE | 9 Jun 2024
WHILE THE OFFICIAL results of the EU elections won’t be published until all 27 member states have voted, with the Italians being the last to do so, we do have some exit polling data coming in from EU countries already this evening, and even a couple of actual results.
Projections of the EU Parliament’s makeup have indicated that Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party is set to retain its position as the largest party while the Socialists and Democrats alliance is predicted to be the second largest grouping. Green parties meanwhile look set for significant losses across the EU.
A noticeable theme across the bloc has been the poor performances of government parties.
Far-right parties are performing well in Germany, Austria, Italy and France, as had been expected.
There are two countries where results are in: Spain and Slovakia, where the government parties have suffered defeat.
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico suffered a surprise loss in the EU elections to the opposition liberals, weeks after he was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt.
Fico’s left-wing nationalist Smer-SD party expressed “congratulations to the winner of the election, Progressive Slovakia” and its new European parliament members, on its Facebook page.
Progressive Slovakia (PS) won 27.81% of the votes the EU election, meaning six seats in the European Parliament, according to results widely reported in Slovak media ahead of their official publication.
Smer-SD won 24.76%, yielding it five seats in the 720-member EU assembly. Far-right party Republika came third with 12.53% and two seats, the results showed.
Spain’s right-wing Popular Party has won, just beating Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists, official results showed.
With 99% of ballots counted, the opposition PP won with 22 seats ahead of the Socialists with 20 seats, while the far-right Vox came in third with six seats.
In Germany, where turnout was the highest since 1979 at 64%, exit polls point to a stinging defeat for Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with all three parties in his troubled coalition behind the conservatives and the far right.
The conservative CDU-CSU party has come out on top with 29.5%.On 14%, Scholz’s Social Democrats trail the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at between 16 and 16.5%.
In Austria meanwhile, the far-right Freedom Party is leading the vote count according to exit polls. If the exit polling figures bear out, it will be the first time the group has topped a nationwide ballot.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party came top in European elections, several exit polls have indicated – although with a wide margin of error.
The party was predicted to have anywhere between 25% and 31% of the vote, followed by the centre-left Democratic party in second place, and then the Five Star Movement.
Projected results from France put far-right Le Pen’s party around 33%, with 31 seats in the incoming European Parliament – more than double the score of President Emmanuel Macron’s liberals, who are expected to get 15%.
The Dutch were the first to vote in the EU elections on Thursday and the GreenLeft-Labour alliance is projected to win eight of the country’s 31 seats while the far-right Freedom and Democracy Party is set to take seven.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party lost ground in the EU elections, partial results showed, in what could be its worst-ever score in its 14-year rule.
With more than half of the votes counted, Fidesz stood at more than 43%, against the 52% it won in 2019.
The EU is also making projections based on opinion polls, past results and exit polls, which you can dig through here if you’re so inclined.
In Croatia, an EU projection indicates the conservative Croatian Democratic Union has come out on top with 34% while the centre left Koalicija ‘SDP’ is in second place on 28%.
In Cyprus, the Christian democratic, liberal conservative Democratic Rally and the communist Progressive Party of Working People are separated by less than 1 percentage point.
Democratic Rally is on 24.4% while the Progressives are on 23.7%, according to an EU projection. Independents are in third place on 14.8%.
More to follow…
Includes reporting from AFP
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Chris Evans more than twice as much as Graham Norton!? There’s more than sexism going on there!
@John Walker: You should bear in mind that that doesn’t include his talk show.
The BBC pay his Production Company which then pays him (or he pays himself…….. if you know what I mean).
I suspect that’s a damn GOOD salary over and above his actual BBC salary.
@John Walker:
Chris Evans is an irrepressible genius, he’s ginger, he’s original, creative, cutting edge, climbing the greasy pole of stardom trough sheer force of personality, money is not his goal, he’s already blown 80 million on cars and booze, when he began dating Billy Piper he bought her a silver Ferrari full of roses, she couldn’t even drive, Chris is car crash TV, when he gets bored he goes drinking and gets sacked then starts again, Chris personifies the idiom ‘You can’t keep a good man down’.
Compared to Chris Graham Norton is pure tedium.
@John Walker: being a good negotiator?
“The BBC’s highest paid woman is Claudia Winkleman”
Who? Exactly.
I 100% agree with equal work for equal pay. But you can’t compare salaries for people who have different levels of exposure, higher ratings, and different jobs on different shows. That’s not comparing like with like.
The only fair comparison here would be to compare 2 BBC news readers – since they actually have the same job on the same show & do the same amount of work.
@Conor Byrne: When you look at the likes of Chris Evans and Graham Norton who both had successful radio and TV shows last year when these contracts were paid. The large salaries they can command are based soley around their personalities rather than something like a large popular show like Come Dancing which, though popular, is not centered around any one personality.
For this reason the “stars” can command the big money and, rightly or wrongly, that’s just the way it is. Inevitably this will be compared to America where the “Stars” can command many times these salaries and women like Oprah and Judge Judy Sheindlin earn vast sums us mere mortals can only dream of. It’s not sexism, it’s just business, and the entertainment business is cut throat.
Jaysus, when Tubridy and Duffy and company hear about this there is bound to be a strike. They aren’t on anywhere near that cash
@Nick Allen: per head of listenership and population, the BBC presenters are on less than their RTE counterparts.
@Nick Allen:
Given the difference in population,shouldn’t Duffy,Untidy,etc be on a fifteenth of what Norton(a real presenter ) makes..around 60,000 seems fair..
@Dermot Lane: Yes – but there are dozens and dozens of stations, from regional to specialist.
@Nick Allen: the Tv licence isnt been used to pay the BBC crew tho, and there would be a slightly higher viewship for the BBC than RTE
@Fank Pulman: true but Evans gets 15 million on BBC
That’s F ing Scandalous!!!
Chris Evans £2million++ He should be pushed onto some obscure satellite tv channel somewhere not paid that much for nothing!
@Dub_Right: Evans entertains over twice the population of our country – everyday on BBC radio, as well as a good few here!!
@Dub_Right: i dont like him at all, he was a disaster on top gear but he has 15 million listeners !
@Dub_Right: Probably includes his Top Gear contract for the year in question.
@Fank Pulman: Evans has over 15 million listeners.
Claudia Winkleman earns almost half a million £££ per year – utterly mind boggling.
@John Ryan:
She spends almost as much on makeup to be fair
I see Graham’s agent negotiating a healthy pay rise at the next contract discussions
@Nick Allen: Doubt it, he get’s paid for his talk show via his Production company. His BBC salary would be for things like Eurovision etc.
Probably the best broadcasting organisation in the world. It won’t stop wingers here winging though.
How much is Bana of Aleppo on? The young girl ‘tweeting’ from Aleppo in Syria about the bad man Assad; a story pushed by the BBC and most other MSM? All the while her father was a local nusra man(terrorist) and her mother, an English teacher, put words in the little girls tweets and used her daughter as a propaganda tool against the Assad Government.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/07/18/uk-column-news-western-media-continue-to-cash-in-on-the-bana-of-aleppo-myth/
The BBC have always done lite entertainment well. Well done. However on the other side, they have been instrumental in the death and destruction of millions of people across the world in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, as lead propagandists for the industrial military complex of the UK and US and their allies.
I’m sorry but what does Chris Evans actually do for the BBC?
@Sorcha Hendry:
Brings in 15 million listeners to his radio show.
Actually, it’s just over 9 million, but I take your point.
@Tweety McTweeter: Good radio show it is too – I’m still listening to BBC Radio 2 all day at work (except for Jeremy Vine, podcasts fill that gap) since last Christmas – great music choice (with minimal repeats!), the lack of sports news and, especially, ads, means I would never go back to Irish commercial radio. The pay mentions today may be high in some cases, but is more than justified in most, especially when competing with attempted poaching by the commercial sector.
Got to love Linekar. King of the cheesy pun.
@methodical2020:
The BBC make some great programs for both TV and radio
Is nobody gonna mention Stephen Nolan being one of the highest paid in the UK 400-499,000 per year!?! You know Nolan, the fat guy on BBC NI that shouted at a politician via video link on that Miriam Callaghan show a while back…How is his wage justified?
@Meanderingsz: He broadcasts every week day on BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio 5 Live from Thursday to Sunday and presents his own live TV show from Belfast!
Happily his weight doesn’t effect the excellent content of his shows.
Jaysus Ryan Turbidity is a bargain – sponsored by RTE
How can RTE keep our stars , when the BBC is paying ‘proper’ salaries ? Please dont send this article to Tubbs or Marian ….
That’s Racist
@Jonathan Stapleton: The other BBC.
LOL! Comments of the week.
Chris Evans and Graham Norton worth every pound
Is it any wonder the toothy chap can buy Ferraris at 20 million a pop
The mind boggles
When will we see how much we pay our creaturs?? And when will they get reasonable rates?
The real question here is who the hell is Jermey Vine?
@Daniel Murray: BBC Radio 2 show between 12 and 2 weekdays. I listen to Radio 2 every day at work, but I skip his slot with podcasts – not my scene, but he’s obviously popular enough in the UK.
And linekar still feels the need to advertise crisps
Gary Lineker on £1.7 million? There are footballers who…. oh wait. Sorry.
Pity they couldn’t have a Transfer Market like in the Soccer Leagues,
Turgid Tubridy needs to go there to get paid commensurate to his talents…
@George Salter: Guess why all the “stars” are still at RTE… actually, RT stood in for Graham Norton on his BBC Radio 2 show last year – not sure how it went, but I see that Alan Carr and Mel Sykes are doing it this year.
two fools to be honest……victims of ZIONIST extremism !!
How the hell can the BBC even employ that human disaster zone that is Victoria Derbyshire ? Every single human tragedy story is jumped upon and squeezed for every bit of drama and sensational aspect she can find….She,and her production team,are purveyors of human suffering and couldn’t give the tiniest of damns about the people in terrible situations that they cruelly exploit
Who cares . I for one haven’t heard of any of them in years . Let them off
to be honest what person in thier right mind give a f** about these two muppets ? seriously ? c’mon journal surely your better than this shiiiiiiiiite !!!
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