Europeans Rebuke the European Union

The results of the weekend’s European Parliament elections may not have been entirely surprising, but they’re a shock to Europe’s system nonetheless. So-called euroskeptic parties notched their best results to date in Continent-wide polls. This doesn’t mean Europeans don’t want the European Union, but it does signify they want an EU that serves them better.

Voters across the 27-country bloc elected 720 members of the European Parliament. Votes still were being tallied as we published, but it’s clear that parties of the right have performed particularly well. The biggest winner is likely to be the European People’s Party, the EU-level coalition of national center-right parties such as Germany’s Christian Democratic Union and Spain’s Popular Party. The EPP is on track to form a plurality in the incoming parliament, as it did in the last one.