By Richard Johnstone | 27 May 2014

Parties opposed to the austerity regimes imposed on European countries by eurozone bailout packages were among those successful in elections to European Parliament, according to results announced yesterday.

In Greece, where the largest range of spending cuts have been imposed by the troika of the Intentional Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank following a €130bn bailout, an anti-austerity coalition led by the Syriza party received the largest vote share. It won nearly 27% of the vote and eight MEPs, while the governing New Democracy party was second with 23% and five MEPs.

Syriza's leader Alexis Tsipras, who has also been nominated by the European Parliament’s left-wing group to be the next president of the European Commission, said the results had rejected austerity.

‘Tomorrow all of Europe will be talking about Syriza,’ he said. ‘Already the peoples of Europe are celebrating the defeat of the memorandum [governing the country’s bailouts] in the country chosen as a guinea pig by the European leadership.’

In Spain, the combined vote share of the two main parties – the centre-right and governing Popular Party and opposition Socialists – fell below 50% for the first time ever as voters expressed opposition to the nation’s austerity programme. The United Left coalition, linked to Spain's former Communist party, came third, with 10% of the vote and six seats, while a new party calling for European Union reform called Podemos, or ‘We can’ won 8%, and five MEPs.

Disenchantment with austerity imposed on Portugal by its bailout conditions led to a boost for the official opposition socialists, which won a 32% vote share and seven MEPs. A joint list of candidates put up by the governing centre-right Social Democrats and the People's Party took 28% of the vote, and six MEPs.

Meanwhile in Germany, the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany party, which is opposed to the bailout for southern European nations at the expense of the continent’s economic powerhouse, won its first representatives, winning seven MEPs. However, the centre-right Christian Democrats and centre-left Social Democrats, who govern in a grand coalition, won 61 of the country’s 96 seats.

In both France and the UK, right-wing anti-Europe parties topped the popular vote and won most MEPs. France’s far-right Front National won nearly 25% of the vote, and 24 MEPs, while the UK Independence Party, which wants to take the country out of the EU, won more than 26% of the vote, and 24 MEPs.

Despite the high-profile results for insurgent parties, the European Parliament’s centre-right group, the European People's Party, is on course to be the biggest, with 213 MEPs. The centre-left Alliance of Socialists and Democrats will be second with 190 representatives, based on the latest projections.

Ahead of the elections, the parliament’s political groupings had nominated official candidates for the next president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, which will be decided following the elections. The parliament urged the European Council, which is made up of national governments, to propose one of the groupings’ nominees to replace Jose Manuel Barroso. As a result of the elections, the leading candidates are Jean-Claude Juncker for the EPP, and Martin Schulz for the S&D.

European leaders are meeting in Brussels today to determine their next moves, and could begin the process of nominating a new commission chief, who will need to be approved by MEPs.