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Voting has ended to elect the European Unions regional lawmakers for the next five-year term after the last remaining polls closed in Italy, as surging far-right parties dealt a body blow to two of the blocs most important leaders: French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Official results were expected any moment after Italian polling stations closed at 11 p.m. local time (2100GMT), officially ending a marathon election spanning four days across 27 bloc member countries.

An initial projection provided by the European Union indicated far-right parties have made big gains at the European Parliament.

In France, the National Rally party of Marine Le Pendominated the pollsto such an extent that Macron immediately dissolved the national parliament and called for new elections, a massive political risk since his party could suffer more losses, hobbling the rest of his presidential term that ends in 2027.

Le Pen was delighted to accept the challenge. Were ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French, ready to put an end to mass immigration, she said, echoing the rallying cry of so many far-right leaders in other countries who were celebrating substantial wins.

Macron acknowledged the thud of defeat. Ive heard your message, your concerns, and I wont leave them unanswered, he said, adding that calling a snap election only underscored his democratic credentials.

In Germany, the most populous nation in the 27-member bloc,projections indicatedthat the AfD overcame a string of scandals involving its top candidate to rise to 16.5%, up from 11% in 2019. In comparison, the combined result for the three parties in the German governing coalition barely topped 30%.

Scholz suffered such an ignominious fate that his long-established Social Democratic party fell behind the extreme-right Alternative for Germany, which surged into second place. After all the prophecies of doom, after the barrage of the last few weeks, we are the second strongest force, a jubilant AfD leader Alice Weidel said.

The four-day polls in the 27 EU countries were the worlds second-biggest exercise in democracy, behind Indias recent election. At the end, the rise of the far right was even more stunning than many analysts predicted.

The French National Rally crystalized it as it stood at over 30% or about twice as much as Macrons pro-European centrist Renew party that is projected to reach around 15%.

Overall across the EU, two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists, remained the dominant forces. The gains of the far right came at the expense of the Greens, who were expected to lose about 20 seats and fall back to sixth position in the legislature. Macrons pro-business Renew group also lost big.

For decades, the European Union, which has its roots in the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, confined the hard right to the political fringes. With its strong showing in these elections, the far right could now become a major player in policies ranging from migration to security and climate.

Bucking the trend was former EU leader and current Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who overcame Law and Justice, the national conservative party that governed Poland from 2015-23 and drove it ever further to the right. A poll showed Tusks party won with 38%, compared to 34% for his bitter nemesis.

Of these large, ambitious countries, of the EU leaders, Poland has shown that democracy, honesty and Europe triumph here, Tusk told his supporters. I am so moved.

He declared, We showed that we are a light of hope for Europe.

Germany, traditionally a stronghold for environmentalists, exemplified the humbling of the Greens, who were predicted to fall from 20% to 12%. With further losses expected in France and elsewhere, the defeat of the Greens could well have an impact on the EUs overallclimate change policies, still the most progressive across the globe.

The center-right Christian Democratic bloc of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which alreadyweakened its green credentialsahead of the polls, dominated in Germany with almost 30%, easily beating Scholzs Social Democrats, who fell to 14%, even behind the AfD.

What you have already set as a trend is all the better strongest force, stable, in difficult times and by a distance, von der Leyen told her German supporters by video link from Brussels.

As well as France, the hard right, which focused its campaign on migration and crime, was expected to make significant gains in Italy, where Premier Giorgia Meloni was tipped to consolidate her power.

Voting continued in Italy until late in the evening and many of the 27 member states have not yet released any projections. Nonetheless, data already published confirmed earlier predictions: the elections will shift the bloc to the right and redirect its future. That could make it harder for the EU to pass legislation, and decision-making could at times be paralyzed in the worlds biggest trading bloc.

EU lawmakers, who serve a five-year term in the 720-seat Parliament, have a say in issues from financial rules to climate and agriculture policy. They approve the EU budget, which bankrolls priorities including infrastructure projects, farm subsidies andaid delivered to Ukraine. And they hold a veto over appointments to the powerful EU commission.

These elections come at a testing time for voter confidence in a bloc of some 450 million people. Over the last five years, the EU has beenshaken by the coronavirus pandemic, aneconomic slumpand anenergy crisisfueled by the biggest land conflict in Europe since the Second World War. But political campaigning often focuses on issues of concern in individual countries rather than on broader European interests.

Since the last EU election in 2019, populist or far-right parties now lead governments in three nations Hungary, Slovakia and Italy and are part of ruling coalitions in others including Sweden, Finland and, soon, the Netherlands. Polls give the populists an advantage inFrance,Belgium,Austria andItaly.

Right is good, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn, who leads a stridently nationalist and anti-migrant government, told reporters after casting his ballot. To go right is always good. Go right!

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Far-right parties make stunning gains in EU election, prompting Macron to call snap vote in France - Fortune

Israels offensive on Rafah will likely kill more civilians and is being carried out despite explicit warnings against it from European Union member states and the United States, the EUs top diplomat says.

The Rafah offensive has started again, in spite all the requests of the international community, the US, the European Union member states, everybody asking [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu not to attack, Josep Borrell tells journalists.

I am afraid that this is going to cause again a lot of casualties, civilian casualties. Whatever they say, he says, adding: There are no safe zones in Gaza.

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EU's Borrell: Rafah offensive will cause civilian casualties, no matter what Israel says - The Times of Israel

Digging into the data

So, what does Eurovision have to say about who should be in charge of the European Union?

We looked at the number of Eurovision points that each EU27 country has won over the last 10 years and learned that, in a shock to everyone, Sweden, this years hosts, should be running the show, with a little help from a Southern friend: Italy.

The figures also show that little Malta and Cyprus should move toward center-stage. But Germany needs to take a back seat.

Spare a thought, too, for Luxembourg and Slovakia, who sit at the bottom of the ranking due to their lack of participation in the contest over the last decade. Luxembourg is taking part in this years contest, so it could rise up the rankings, but Slovakia isnt and hasnt been an entrant since 2012.

There are of course many similarities between Eurovision and the EU. Both are relatively exclusive clubs that many want to join, through what we might define as an enlargement process.

Eurovision started in 1956 with seven participating countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland (thats the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community plus the place that gave us Toblerone).

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Who would run the EU if decided by Eurovision? - POLITICO Europe

Europe is awash with worry. Ahead of parliamentary elections widely expected to deliver gains to the hard right, European leaders can barely conceal their anxiety. In a speech in late April, President Emmanuel Macron of France captured the prevailing mood. After eloquently warning of threats to the continent, he pronounced the need for a newly powerful Europe, a Europe puissance.

As I watched the speech, I was reminded of Niccol Machiavellis comments in the opening pages of The Prince, the 16th-century philosophers seminal treatise on political power. In a dedication to Lorenzo de Medici, the ruler of the Florentine Republic, Machiavelli suggested that politics is in many ways like art. Just as landscape painters imaginatively place themselves in the plains to examine the mountains and on top of mountains to study the plains, so too should rulers inhabit their domains. To know the nature of the people well, one must be a prince, Machiavelli wrote, and to know the nature of princes well, one must be of the people.

Here was a politician grappling with the first part of Machiavellis sentence, an officeholder trying to comprehend the lay of the land. What is power in contemporary Europe, and how should it be exercised by the European Union? Mr. Macron answered in princely fashion, showing awareness of both the finite nature of every political community Europe is mortal, he said and its cyclical vulnerability to crisis. He concluded with a passionate defense of European civilization and urged the creation of a paradigm to revive it.

Yet for all his aspirations, Mr. Macron neglected the second half of Machiavellis sentence: that people also form views on their rulers, which rulers ignore at their peril. Mr. Macron brushed aside the many Europeans who feel the bloc is aloof and inaccessible, describing their disenchantment as a result of false arguments. The dismissal was no aberration. For decades, the leaders of the European Union have overlooked the people in the plains, shutting out the continents citizens from any meaningful political participation. This exclusion has changed the contours of the European landscape, paving the way for the radical right.

When Machiavelli reflected on the crises of his time among them conflicts between major European powers, discontent with public officials and the collapsing legitimacy of the Catholic Church he turned to the Roman Republic for inspiration. When there is skepticism about values, he wrote, history is our only remaining guide. The secret to Roman freedom, he explained in the Discourses on Livy, was neither its good fortune nor its military might. Instead, it lay in the Romans ability to mediate the conflict between wealthy elites and the vast majority of people or as he put it, i grandi (the great) and il popolo (the people).

While the inherent tendency of the great, Machiavelli argued, is to accumulate wealth and power to rule the rest, the inherent desire of the people is to avoid being at the elites mercy. The clash between the groups generally pulled polities in opposite directions. Yet the Roman Republic had institutions, like the tribunate of the plebs, that sought to empower the people and contain the elites. Only by channeling rather than suppressing this conflict, Machiavelli said, could civic freedom be preserved.

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Opinion | Europe Is About to Drown in the River of the Radical Right - The New York Times

(Bloomberg) -- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on the European Union to mobilize at least 100 billion euros ($108 billion) on defense and build a joint air-defense system as the bloc contends with Russian aggression.

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Speaking alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Tusk on Tuesday argued that a long debate on the increasing the blocs defense capability must culminate in a decision soon.

A lot of money spent well and wisely on Europes security will keep the war away from Europes borders for a long time, Tusk told an economic conference in the southern Polish city of Katowice. Maybe permanently.

Polands premier has been ramping up calls for more defense spending as the war in Ukraine stretches into its third year, with Kyiv forces increasingly out-gunned on the battlefield. Warsaw has already said it wants to join the so-called European Sky Shield Initiative, which currently includes 21 countries.

The comments coincided with a number of events that underscored the threat. Security officials in Katowice said a room sweep where Tusk was scheduled to hold an extraordinary cabinet meeting uncovered devices that could be used for eavesdropping.

Elsewhere, prosecutors launched an investigation on a judge for alleged espionage after he fled the country to neighboring Belarus, claiming he was persecuted by Tusks government.

Von der Leyen said the EU should rebuild, replenish and transform its militaries, backing Tusks call for air defense. As the EU has dispatched billions to help Ukraines war effort, the 27-member bloc has fallen short in its ambitions to produce enough ammunition to help Kyiv stave off Russias assault.

Tusk warned that the region needs to spend the coming years building military readiness sufficiently to act as a deterrence against potential foes. He also called on the bloc to bolster its external border.

European borders have to be protected, because they have become the borders between the continent of peace and the aggressors who are preparing a war for us, also using hybrid methods, Tusk said.

--With assistance from Maciej Martewicz.

(Updates with security concerns, von der Leyen comments from fifth paragraph.)

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Poland's Tusk Calls on EU to Build Joint Air-Defense System - Yahoo! Voices