Europeans: the night that everything was going to change was after all the night that (almost) everything stayed the same

The European People’s Party (PPE) came out stronger, the president of the European Commission (and re-candidate for the position) also came out stronger in this race, while the extreme right did not come out as robust as if anticipated. Pulling back the clock on these European elections, the polls pointed to a shift to the right, very far to the right. The European Union’s center of gravity would no longer be located… in the center, moving to the most extreme right.

There was even talk of an ultra-right supergroup that would result from the merger between European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR, eurosceptics and with more extremist factions) and Identity and Democracy (ID, declared extreme right). An extended family that, as a whole – and according to some projections –, could even surpass the majority PPE (center-right). But the radical right’s ‘assault’ on power in the Union’s legislative body, which had already been attempted in 2019, did not materialize either.