BRUSSELS _ Mainstream European Union parties held their ground against the assault from populists in elections for the bloc's Parliament as the highest turnout in two decades looked set to reward pro-EU Liberals and Greens.
As polls closed, the parties who rally against foreigners, want to rein in the 28-nation EU and hate the cozy relationship between centrist groups weren't performing as well as some establishment politicians feared, according to official provisional results.
Two major exceptions to the EU-wide trend were France and Italy. President Emmanuel Macron had talked up this election as a straight choice between those who are for or against the EU and his party was heading for defeat by Marine Le Pen's euroskeptic National Rally with more than half the votes counted.
"The French people gave a lesson in humility" to Macron, far-right candidate Jordan Bardella said.
And in Italy, Matteo Salvini's nationalist League won 30%, according to a projection by state broadcaster RAI, far ahead of the 17% in last year's general election. The opposition center-left Democratic Party overtook the Five Star Movement, the League's coalition ally.
With full results from across Europe filtering in over the next four hours, the focus will be on whether the mainstream postwar center-right and center-left alliances will have a majority in the European Parliament as has been the case since direct elections began 40 years ago.
According to the latest provisional results, the two big alliances will make up 44% of the seats, down from 56% in 2014. The pro-business Liberals and the Greens look like the big winners with 14% and 9% respectively, up from 9% and 7%.
An assortment of anti-establishment, euroskeptic and populist parties looks set to win 29% of seats in the Europe-wide vote, slightly less than in the outgoing parliament, according to official EU provisional results. Differing views on some of Europe's key issues mean these parties have up until now always failed to work together.
The results signal that the EU is likely to broadly continue current policies: distancing itself from U.S. President Donald Trump's protectionist trade strategy, gradually integrating the euro area, seeking a way to share the burden of non-EU migrants and holding firm against any U.K. attempt to reopen the Brexit deal. The result will also feed into the race for the bloc's top jobs, including European Commission president and head of the European Central Bank.
While Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc is a clear winner in Germany with an estimated 29% of the vote, that's less than the 35% recorded in 2014. The Social Democrats, Merkel's junior coalition partner, slumped to 15.5% from 27%, while the Greens surged to second place with 21%. The nationalist AfD is set to record 11%, according to projections, lower than forecast but up on 2014's 7%.
"This election result is not a result that meets the ambitions that we've set for ourselves as a mass party," Merkel's chosen successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, told party members in Berlin.
In Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a general election following defeat in the European poll to center-right New Democracy The national vote will most likely be held at the end of June or early July.
Across Europe, it's a similar picture of euroskeptic parties failing to make breakthroughs:
In Denmark, exit polls show the nationalist Danish People's Party will get less than 12% of the vote, after getting 21% in the last national electionSpain's Socialists won the largest proportion of seats there, with the center-right People's Party in second place, with nearly all votes counted.
In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's conservatives gained about 8 points to 34.9%, according to a final projectionIn Slovakia, the far-right party is set to finish third In Finland, with 21% of the vote counted, the far-right Finns party is getting 13% _ roughly in line with its 2014 showing.
In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz Party won with 52% of the vote.
"The tendency of less cooperation and saying no to the EU has really reminded people about what is good about the EU," Swedish EU minister Hans Dahlgren told broadcaster SVT. "This has increased support for the EU across all of Europe."
The U.K. was obliged to participate in the election because it didn't leave the EU on March 29 as scheduled. So far, two regions have declared, with the Brexit Party, which is campaigning for a clean break from the EU, scoring 38% nationwide and the pro-EU Liberal Democrats on 21%.
_With assistance from Viktoria Dendrinou and Marine Strauss.
