Pro-EU parties were on track to win 493 of the 751 seats, giving them a reduced—but still significant—majority in the union. The European People’s Party, the traditional centre-right block, lost 41 seats; the Social Democrats, traditionally centre-left, lost 46. Those gains were partially made up for by other pro-EU centrist parties, including the Greens, which picked up 19 seats, and the Liberal Democrats, which picked up 42. Eurosceptic parties picked up 21 seats. (The Guardian)

Talking point: EU stocks opened high on the news; investors had been concerned that far-right Eurosceptic parties would do better than they did. While union-wide stability may have been achieved, there’s plenty of volatility on a country-by-country level. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz lost a confidence vote and is stepping down. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is calling for an early national election after his far-left Syriza party did poorly in the EU elections. In France, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party beat President Emmanuel Macron’s in the latest challenge to a government embattled by street protests for months. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party dropped seven per cent. In the U.K., the Brexit party won the most seats. The new Parliament will need to approve a replacement for Jean-Claude Juncker, European commission president, and Donald Tusk, European council president. The negotiations around who will fill those and other key roles are expected to be torturous, even among the pro-EU block.