European Parliament elections: Key takeaways – ING

ING came up with its key takeaways from the European Parliament elections based on the official projections as of 11:15 pm CET.

Key points:

• An overall turnout of just over 50% for the EU 27 – the UK elections being an odd one out for obvious reasons – is the best since 1994. However, it is still shy of turnouts in national elections.
• Eurosceptic parties are set to take less than 30% of the seats according to early results.
• Pressure builds on the French President Macron at home while snap elections at Greece could be bigger news with Italy and Germany holding the status quo.
• The European Parliament (EP) follows the trend observed in many national parliaments, namely the end of a two-party majority as the Christian Democrats (EPP) and Social Democrats (S&D) lost their majority. This fragmentation will make decision-making more complex in the years ahead. 
• Today’s results have not flipped the coin in any direction. In fact, this musical chairs game could be a very long game with the only caveat that the current president of the European Commission could stay on as a caretaker. This is something that the European Treaties clearly does not allow for the ECB presidency.