According to the forecasts of the first exit polls announced in France, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front comes in first with 25%, followed by mainstream right Union for a Popular Movement with 20% and Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party with 14%.

More specifically, the ruling Socialist Party recorded a significant decline and was left languishing in third place with just 14-15 percent, while centre-right UMP is expected to get 21%.

Regarding the allocation of seats, Le Pen will take around a third, or 23-25, of France’s 74 seats in the European Parliament, UMP will get 18-21 seats and the Socialists only 13.

Marine Le Pen’s victory is extremely alarming as, even in the countries most heavily hit by the crisis, namely Greece, Spain and Portugal, the extreme populist forces did not record such high rates.

With the slogan “No to Brussels, Yes to France,” Marine Le Pen completed her election campaign talking about a “beautiful France” that the French people should “protect, by taking back the reigns of their future.”

“The sovereign people have spoken loud and clear. They have said they want to take back the reigns of their future. They don’t want to be ruled from overseas by laws they never chose or voted on. They have given us the formidable responsibility to act on the choices they have made tonight.” said Le Pen after the exit poll, asking for the dissolution of the French parliament.

She accused EU for “failing to protect the country” and spoke of “mass unemployment” due to globalization.

As for the euro that was “created to serve Germany’s needs,” Le Pen has only one answer: “No”.

At the same time, the head of the National Front has praised Italian Five Stars movement leader Beppe Grillo and demanded a meeting with him to discuss Euro-sceptic policies, according to local reports.

Reactions

Le Pen’s victory has already sparked controversy in France. Segolene Royal was one of the first to comment the exit poll results, characterizing the far-right success as ‘a shock on a global scale’. Prime Minister Manuel Valls also described the result as ‘a shock, an earthquake’.

Can extreme europhobic parties form an alliance after the elections?

From Marine Le Pen’s France. Bart de Weaver’s Belgium and DPP’s Denmark to the Greece of Golden Dawn and SYRIZA – as many of the correspondents in Brussels haven’t forgotten the anti-European speeches of the Coalition of the Radical Left party – 1200 journalists are trying to decode the first results.

The main candidates for the presidency of the European Commission are beginning to arrive at the European Parliament, Ska Keller of the European Greens being the first.
However, Alexis Tsipras, candidate for the European Commission presidency with the Radical Left will remain in Athens and the question is whether extreme europhobic parties will be able to work together after the elections to form the first anti-European group in the EP.

If Marine Le Pen forms an alliance with Geert Wilders from the Netherlands and with other europhobic parties from Austria, Denmark, Slovakia, Belgium and Italy, they will try to block the legislative work of the Parliament and, if Nigel Farage joins them, they will form the third largest political group in the Parliament.

This development will force the main political groups, EPP Socialists and Liberals to work together, at least on some level, so there is a clear line – Pro-Europeans and Anti-Europeans.

In a few hours the other main candidates for the presidency of European Commission are expected to arrive in Brussels, namely Jean- Claude Juncker, Martin Schulz and Guy Verhofstad and make official statements regarding the election results.

Official results announcement

According to the IFOP institute abstention reached 59%, a lower percentage than the opinion polls predicted.

Based on opinion polls, eurosceptic parties are generally expected to record a significant increase and strengthen their presence in the new European Parliament.

The announcement of the official results will start after the polls close in all countries, in accordance with the EU directive, at approximately 24:00 EET.