The results are in following the vote by 5097 Monegasques for the 24 seats in the National Council. That is a participation by 70.35% (74.4% in 2013) of those allowed to vote, greater than typical of other western European countries.

The results are conclusive for the Party “(Priorite Monaco) Primo!” whose leader Stephane Valeri led a well-oiled campaign and is now destined to be President of the National Council when his election as leader will be carried out shortly. He will formally replace Christophe Steiner.

Stephane Valeri is a veteran of the political scene having been President of the National Council twice before in 2003 and 2008. For a time, from 2010 he was also Minister of Health and Social Affairs. The majority of the 24 seats go to Stephane Valeri’s Primo! Some seats are distributed to minority parties who have more than 5% of the vote to provide for a good debate between the majority and minority parties, while leaving no doubt about the majority and the leadership. Everything points the way to a productive and stable relationship between the National Council and the Government.

Under Monaco’s constitution the Executive powers are invested in the Prince who is the highest authority and who chooses a Minister of State (Serge Telle) to lead the Government. The National Council has less power than its equivalent in France. Its role is to discuss and vote on laws presented by the Government, to vote on the national budget and ratify international treaties, but not to initiate or amend legislation. Parliament in Monaco has a single Chamber, being the National Council, which contrasts with the U.K. and the U.S. for example which have two Chambers.

The two other main parties were magnanimous in their speeches recognizing their defeat. Beatrice Fresko-Rolfo for Horizon Monaco was proud to be the first woman in her role and hoped this paved the way for women in future. Horizon will have two seats in the Chamber.

Jean-Louis Grinda for Union Monegasque recognized the victory of Primo! but felt that his party had sown the seeds of some good new ideas for the future. Union Monegasque will have one seat in the Chamber.

Stephane Valeri and Primo! are the majority party and will have 21 of the 24 seats in the Chamber. </s> Valletta (dpa) - Malta‘s Labour Party cruised to a landslide victory on Sunday in a major vote of confidence for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, despite the claims of corruption that dogged his government. 



Party projections showed the Labour Party won 55.2 per cent of the vote against the centre-right Nationalist Party‘s 44 per cent, much higher than the five per cent projections reflected in polls. 



Muscat, 43, saw off the challenge from Simon Busuttil, 48, after a tense four-week election campaign in which the prime minister was under siege for retaining his chief of staff and a prominent minister who were accused of having secret companies in Panama.



"The people have confirmed their trust in this movement, despite it being the target of one of the most negative campaigns in our country‘s history," Muscat told thousands of supporters who gathered outside the party headquarters.



Malta, the smallest member of the European Union with around 430,000 residents, holds the rotating council presidency of the European Union until the end of June. </s> Labour supporters take to the streets to celebrate after early results indicate a comfortable victory for ruling party.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has declared victory in Malta's snap election after preliminary results showed his Labour Party heading towards a second mandate.

A sample count of ballots on Sunday showed Labour having a majority of more than 30,000 votes, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of the electorate.

"It is clear that the people have chosen to stay the course," said Muscat, who called the snap vote to counter allegations of corruption against his wife and some of his political allies.

Simon Busuttil, the leader of the opposition Nationalist Party (PN), made a telephone call to Muscat to concede defeat in Saturday's election.

"As always, we respect the decision of the electorate," Busuttil said in a tweet.

After the announcement of the preliminary results,Labour supporters took to the streets in celebration, gathering near party clubs and waving flags.

A crowd gathered near the party's headquarters and workers were erecting a stage at the granaries in Floriana, Times of Malta reported.

The turnout was 92 percent of the more than 340,000 eligible voters, the election commission said. Official results are expected later on Sunday.

Muscat, 43, is expected to be sworn in on Monday, after which he will begin forming his new government that will have a five-year mandate.

During the election campaign, Muscat promised continuity and greater wealth for a country that has the lowest unemployment rate ever at 4.1 percent - the third lowest in Europe - and in 2016 registered a budget surplus for the first time in three decades.

The victory indicates that there will be no major disruption to the business of the European Union, whose presidency Malta holds until the end of this month.

Shortly after polls closed, Malta's President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca called for a process of reconciliation to begin after what she called a campaign full of "aggressive and abusive language" both by politicians and the public.

"I want to see people returning to open dialogue, which is the basis of a healthy democracy," she said.

Muscat, who has been prime minister since 2013, went to the polls a year after his wife was accused of being the beneficial owner of a secret Panamanian shell company used to bank unexplained payments from Azerbaijan's ruling family.

His chief of staff and a government minister have separately admitted having their own, previously undeclared Panama-registered companies, following revelations from last year's massive data leak from the Mossack Fonseca legal firm based in the Central American country.

Muscat has come under fire for not sacking the two of them.

The PN had warned that even if Muscat won the election, he would still remain under pressure as magistrates investigate claims of corruption made against him and his ministers.

Muscat has however denied any wrongdoing and promised to quit if any evidence emerges of his family having an undeclared offshore account. </s> Hier ont eu lieu les élections nationales de Monaco. 70,35% des électeurs monégasques se sont déplacés pour départager trois listes candidates au Conseil national, équivalent de notre Parlement : Horizon Monaco, Union monégasque et Primo! (Priorité Monaco!).

Selon plusieurs médias monégasques, c'est cette dernière qui a remporté une large victoire, raflant 21 sièges sur 24. Pari réussi pour Stéphane Valeri, ancien président du Conseil et ancien ministre, qui dirigeait cette toute nouvelle liste.

Horizon Monaco a fait élire sa tête de liste actuelle Béatrice Fresko-Rolfo et l'ancienne tête de liste Jacques Rit. L'Union monégasque n'a réussi à placer que sa tête de liste Jean-Louis Grinda - un nouveau camouflet après celui des élections de 2013.

Un Parlement monocaméral

Contrairement à de nombreux pays européens, parmi lesquels la France, Monaco possède un Parlement monocaméral, c'est-à-dire constitué d'une seule chambre. Les 24 membres du Conseil national sont élus pour quatre ans.

>> Lire aussi : Monaco, un régime politique unique en son genre

Lors des élections, la liste ayant obtenu la majorité des voix obtient 16 sièges. Les 8 sièges restants sont répartis proportionnellement entre les listes ayant obtenu plus de 5% des suffrages, et les votants ont la possibilité d'effectuer un panachage.

Aux dernières élections nationales, en 2013, 74,55% des 6284 électeurs s'étaient déplacés. La liste Horizon Monaco avait obtenu vingt sièges, l'Union monégasque - majoritaire jusqu'ici - trois et Renaissance un.

Fait rarissime dans la Principauté, Horizon Monaco avait connu de telles dissensions que le président originel, Laurent Nouvion, avait dû céder sa place à son vice-président Christophe Steiner en avril 2016. Ce dernier a décidé de quitter la vie politique et ne se représentait pas cette année. </s> Valletta (dpa) - Malta‘s Labour Party is heading towards a second mandate Sunday, with opposition leader Simon Busuttil conceding defeat within an hour of vote counting.



Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, 43, has seen off a challenge from Busuttil, 48, of the centre-right Nationalist Party, after a tense four-week election campaign. 



"It is clear that the people have chosen to stay the course," Muscat told the state broadcaster, shortly after initial counts showed his party leading by up to eight per cent. 



Official results are expected later Sunday. 



Voters cast their ballots for a new government on Saturday in snap parliamentary elections called by Muscat a year ahead of schedule amid a corruption scandal connected to the Panama Papers document leak.



Malta, the smallest member of the European Union with around 430,000 residents, holds the rotating presidency of the EU until the end of June.



Muscat‘s government has been in hot water as a result of the Panama Papers, a massive data leak out of the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca in April 2016 that detailed how money was being funneled to shell companies in tax havens.



The leak revealed that Muscat‘s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and former energy minister Konrad Mizzi owned secret companies abroad. 



Muscat says he called a snap election to eliminate economic uncertainty, but the opposition insists claims of corruption will not dissipate through a popular vote.



The Nationalist Party also produced documents that it claims show that Schembri received kickbacks from a controversial cash-for-passports scheme, while Mizzi is said to have benefited personally from a power station project.



Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi have strongly denied the claims. </s> Haiti Electoral Council Calls for Calm, Promises Poll Results on Monday



PORT-AU-PRINCE Ė Haitiís Provisional Election Council has announced that the results of the countryís general elections last Sunday will be declared on Monday next week.



The council also called for calm as the polling data is counted, requesting both the public and political parties to wait for the final data and refrain from any actions that could exacerbate rising tensions.



Speaking at a press conference Friday, the councilís head Leopold Berlanger stressed that the council is working hard to deliver the results by Monday and is aware that people are waiting but wants to do a good job to prevent another crisis.



The political parties and candidates will have the obligation to respect the electoral decree so as not to create a fresh post electoral crisis, Berlanger added.



The statements came hours after the two presidential candidates, in letters to the council, denounced the existence of alleged irregularities inside the computing centers.



Jude Celestin of the Lapeh party urged the council to be careful in the process of scrutinizing the votes to prevent another post electoral crisis after the one witnessed in 2015.



Maryse Narcisse of the Fanmi Lavalas party alleged that many votes from the polling stations in the capitalís Cite Soleil, where she claims to be strong, have not been taken for counting.



Since Feb. 15, 2016, a provisional government led by Jocelerme Privert has been running the country following the conclusion of the term of former President Michel Martelly without the election of a successor, leading to a political crisis. </s> Malta's prime minister is claiming victory in early elections called to consolidate the government's position, saying unofficial results indicate a "sizeable" win for his Labour Party.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Malta's national broadcaster on Sunday (4 June) that voters had "chosen the positive campaign of the Labour Party as against the negativity and bitterness of the Nationalist Party".

Official results will be released on Monday. A victory would give Labour a second five-year term.

Muscat called the snap elections a year early following an investigation into allegations his wife owned a company related to the Panama Papers scandal. They deny any wrongdoing.

The Panama Papers leak exposed the identities of the rich and powerful around the world with offshore holdings in Panama. Those fingered also included Muscat's energy minister Konrad Mizzi. Mizzi was the only incumbent minister of an EU nation identified in the leaks. He stepped down from his position soon after. </s> The Latest: Slovakia pro-EU party comes in 1st in EU vote

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on elections for the European Parliament (all times local):

A new pro-EU coalition linked to President-elect Zuzana Caputova has won the European Parliament election in Slovakia while a far-right party gained seats in the EU legislature for the first time.

According to the final results released by the Slovak Statistics Office, the coalition Progressive Slovakia/Together received 20.1 % of the vote, gaining four seats in the European legislature.

Caputova was Progressive Slovakia deputy chairman before winning the March presidential election.

People's Party Our Slovakia, a far-right party, finished third with 12.1 %, winning two seats.

But Slovakia's local ally of France's far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen didn't win a seat.

A centrist party in the Czech Republic led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis won the most votes in the European Parliament election despite the fact that Babis is facing fraud charges involving the use of EU funds.

The Czech Statistics office says his ANO (YES) group has won 21.2% percent of the Sunday vote or six seats — two more than in 2014 —of the 21 seats at stake in the Czech ballot.

Babis wants his country to remain in the bloc but is calling for EU reforms.

The Czech Republic's most ardent anti-EU group, the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, captured its first seats — two of them — in the EU legislature after finishing fifth with 9.1%. The party is the Czech ally of France's far-right National Rally party led Marine Le Pen.

The moderate euroskeptic Civic Democratic Party was second in the vote, winning four seats, while two pro-European parties, Pirate party and conservative TOP 09, won three seats each.

The first official British results in the European Parliament election bear out predictions of victory for the Brexit Party led by anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage.

The tally from northeast England, the first of the U.K.'s 12 regions to report, gives the single-issue party, launched just weeks ago, 39% of the vote.

The left-of-center Labour Party, which has traditionally dominated the region, got 19% of the vote, down sharply from 2014.

The pro-EU Liberal Democrats, campaigning to stop Brexit, more than doubled their share to 17% of the vote, while and the governing Conservatives got just 7%, one point behind the Greens.

Many U.K. voters are apparently using the election to protest at Britain's Brexit deadlock.

Hungary's National Election Office says Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party has won 13 of Hungary's 21 seats in the EU parliament, one seat more than in the 2014 vote.

With 99.9% of the votes counted Sunday evening, former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's Democratic Coalition has won four seats and the liberal Momentum Movement has captured two seats.

Both the left-wing/green coalition of the Socialist and Dialogue parties, and the right-wing Jobbik party got one seat each, worse than expected.

Voter turnout was above 43%, the highest for an EU parliament election in Hungary, which first took part in the balloting in 2004.

Spain's Socialists have won the European elections ahead of the conservative Popular Party, according to provisional results released by Spain's Interior Ministry.

With 85% of the votes counted, the Socialists will win 32.9% of the vote and 20 seats of the 54 that Spain is allocated in the European Parliament. The conservative Popular Party, which suffered major losses in the April 28 national election, has won 12 seats, down from 16 seats in 2014.

The upstart far-right Vox party is the fifth most popular in Spain, earning three seats, its first time in the European Parliament.

The poor showing for the Popular Party comes after it was crushed in last month's national election. The party has been hurt by corruption allegations and convictions.

The victory will strengthen Sánchez as he tries to form a coalition government.

The Socialists are also hoping to do well in local and regional elections in Spain on Sunday.

Exit polls indicate the right-wing populist League party led by Italy's hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, posted huge gains in this year's European parliamentary election to become Italy's largest party.

The League won between 27% and 31% of the vote, up from 6.2% five years ago. Salvini has been working to expand an alliance of right-wing populist parties in a bid to upend European politics and slow down, if not turn around, the drive toward greater European integration.

In another significant result, the League's government coalition partner, the populist 5-Star Movement, is Italy's third party, behind the Democratic Party, which lost badly in last year's national election.

If the 5-Star Movement's finish behind the Democratic Party is confirmed in the final result, it could have implications for Italy's governing coalition.

Projected results from the European Parliament in Portugal predict a victory for the Socialists of Prime Minister António Costa.

The Socialists are projected to win with nearly 32.5% of the vote, slightly down from 2014 when it took 34%.

The center-right opposition is set to take 22.9%, while the leftist Bloco de Esquerda is projected to get nearly 10.3% of the vote.

Costa will face a national election in Portugal in October.

Voters in ethnically divided Cyprus have elected a Turkish Cypriot to the European Parliament for the first time since the island nation joined the 28-member bloc in 2004.

Niyazi Kizilyurek, who teaches at the University of Cyprus' Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies Department, ran for the communist-rooted AKEL party that was the runner-up in Sunday's European parliament election behind the conservative Democratic Rally party.

Kizilyurek told private TV station Sigma that he'll represent Cyprus and its European citizens, irrespective of ethnic origin.

AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said the election of Kizilyurek, 60, sends a strong message to other EU nations that Cypriots want an end to their country's division and want more EU help in peace efforts.

Despite earlier opinion polls, far-right party ELAM didn't manage to gain one of Cyprus' six allotted seats at the European Parliament, even though it doubled its support.

The pro-business ALDE group said Sunday's voting projections make it clear that the European Parliament will have a "new balance of power" and the long-dominant European People's Party and Socialists groups will have to share much more power.

Guy Verhofstadt said his group, boosted by the addition of French President Macron's LREM party, will be an essential powerbroker in the negotiations to get a working majority in the legislature and back a candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission President.

Verhofstadt says the two mainstream parties "will no longer have a majority and it means no solid pro-EU majority is possible" without his ALDE group and others pro-EU parties like the Greens.

Latest projections show the EPP getting 173 seats, down from 217, and the Socialist S&D with 147, down from 186. Together they hold 320 seats in the 751-seat legislature.

Verhofstadt's group is projected to get 102 seats and the Greens 71.

An exit poll shows a huge setback in the European Parliament election for Romania's ruling coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party.

Data released Sunday by pollsters Avangarde and CURS show the Social Democrats, or PSD, getting a 25.8% of the votes, enough only to tie the opposition National Liberal Party, or PNL.

The PSD's junior coalition partner, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, may get less than the mandatory 5% of votes needed to win a seat in the EU legislature.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis says the Social Democrats have "failed," adding that the only possible option was that their government "has to go." Critics say the government tolerates corruption.

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said she wouldn't step down, declaring that "Romanians trust the current government. These were EU, not national, elections."

French President Emmanuel Macron's party is pledging to combat nationalists at the European Parliament and block them from weakening France.

The lead candidate of Macron's centrist party, Nathalie Loiseau, urged all pro-European forces "to unite to defend the interests of the Europeans" and not let the European Union fall into the hands of "those who want to unbuild it."

In France, polling agency estimates show that Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party is expected to beat Macron's centrist party in the European election.

Loiseau said her party, associated with the pro-market ALDE alliance in a new centrist group, will have a key role as they will represent the third strongest force at the European Parliament.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he will continue to implement Macron's policies and planned reforms.

In Greece, New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the protected winner of Sunday's European election, has just called on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resign.

Tsipras, who is not obliged to call an early election until his term expires in October, is at the Syriza party headquarters. Top Syriza officials say an early election is not on the cards.

The Interior Ministry's pollster estimates that conservative opposition New Democracy will get 32.8%, while the ruling left-wing Syriza party will get 24%.

In other estimates, the Socialists got 7.8%, the Communist Party saw 5.6%, the far-right Golden Dawn saw 4.8% and the nationalist Greek Solution was projected at 4.1%. The estimate is based on results from 10% of polling stations.

Green leaders in the European Parliament are hailing a "green wave" that has spread throughout Europe after early projections showed the environmentalist movement is likely to make significant gains.

Early projections Sunday suggest the Greens will secure 71 seats in the 751-seat parliament, up from 52 seats five years ago. The Greens appear to have done well in France, Germany and Ireland.

The Greens co-leader in the assembly, Ska Keller, says "the green wave has really spread all over Europe and for us that is a fantastic result."

Fellow Greens leader Philippe Lamberts says the party cannot be avoided as groups begin negotiations in coming days to form alliances in the parliament to counter the likely rise of anti-EU parties.

Lamberts says "to forge a stable European Union, the Greens are indispensable."

An exit poll in Poland shows the nationalist conservative ruling Law and Justice party as the biggest vote-getter in the European Parliament election, with 42.6% of the vote.

If the projection is confirmed by the official results, it would put the party in a strong position ahead of Poland's national parliamentary election in the fall.

The exit poll by the Ipsos agency shows the ruling party's main rival, the European Coalition, running in second place with 39.1%. The coalition is led by the centrist Civic Platform party and includes several other parties.

The exit poll gave Spring, a new center-left party that backs fighting climate change, 6.6% support.

A far-right alliance formed to stand in the European election, Confederation, had 6.6% of the vote according to the exit poll.

The ruling, pro-EU conservatives are projected to win the most votes in the European election in Croatia, the European Union's newest member.

An exit poll carried by the public broadcaster HRT said Sunday that the Croatian Democratic Union will win some 23% of the ballot, followed by the center-left Social Democratic Party with around 17%.

HRT says the exit polls have been conducted by the Ipsos polling agency. Partial official results are expected later in the evening.

The exit polls also indicated that a far-right coalition could win 6.6% of the ballot, or one of the 12 EU seats for Croatia. Local media say the biggest surprise is the third position for an independent list with some 8% of the votes.

First European Parliament projections suggest that mainstream parties have lost ground in the EU elections, with the Greens and far-right and populist parties set to pick up seats.

The projections, based on estimates in 11 EU member countries and voting intentions in 17 others, show that the center-right European People's Party would remain the biggest group with 173 seats, down from 217 in 2014.

The center-left Socialists would lose 40 seats, dropping to 147.

The left-wing Greens seem set to win 71 seats, up from 52 in 2014.

The European of Nations and Freedom group, which combines populist and far-right parties in countries like France and Italy, looks like it will secure 57 seats, up 20 from five years ago.

Despite the losses for mainstream parties, staunchly pro-EU parties are slated to win 493 of the 751 seats in Parliament.

French far-right, nationalist leader Marine Le Pen is declaring victory in the European Parliament election over pro-EU French President Emmanuel Macron.

French polling agencies are projecting that Le Pen's National Rally will come first in France's voting Sunday, followed by Macron's centrist Republic on the Move party.

Le Pen said the expected result "confirms the new nationalist-globalist division" in France and beyond.

She immediately expressed hope the election could foreshadow her party's victory in France's 2022 presidential election. Le Pen was beaten handily by Macron in France's 2017 presidential vote.

She called on Macron to dissolve the French parliament.

Macron says the National Rally represents the "leprosy" of nationalism that is eating the EU from within. For Le Pen, the race is a battle to preserve European civilization from immigration and globalization.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says he is "invigorated" by a projection showing a big win for his center-right party after a week in which his governing coalition collapsed.

The projection for ORF public television, the Austria Press Agency and private broadcaster ATV pointed to Kurz's center-right People's Party finishing well ahead of the center-left Social Democrats in the European Parliament vote. It also shows Kurz's former coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party, a distant third.

A scandal surrounding the Freedom Party's now-departed leader brought down the coalition and prompted Kurz to call for an early national election in September.

Kurz still may be unseated by an opposition no-confidence vote in parliament on Monday. But he told supporters on Sunday: "Whatever is going to happen tomorrow and in the following days we are defying the rain, we are defying everything else that is going to come our way. We emerge invigorated."

French polling agency estimates show that Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party is expected to beat French President Emmanuel Macron's party in the European elections.

The populist, anti-immigrant National Rally is estimated to win 23% to 24% of the vote, compared to 21.9% to 22.5% for Macron's centrist, pro-European party. That's according to estimates by the Ifop and Ipsos polling agencies.

The green party EELV is estimated at 12.8% to 13%, a sharp rise compared to previous European elections.

The French conservative party, The Republicans, is expected to be in fourth position with about 8% support while far-left France Insoumise ("Rebel France") and the Socialist party are both estimated to capture between 6% and 7% support.

In France, polling agencies including Ifop and Ipsos are forecasting the nationwide vote result based on projections from the actual vote count in select constituencies.

The European Parliament spokesman says turnout for this year's pivotal election is nearing 51% for 27 nations, according to preliminary figures.

Jaume Duch Guillot says the figure, which excludes Britain, is the highest in at least 20 years and reverses years of steady decline. U.K. figures are expected later Sunday evening, as final tallies roll in for an election that both centrist parties and the far-right have portrayed as a referendum on sovereignty and the European Union.

Four days of voting will end Sunday, and 426 million people across 28 nations were eligible to vote for the makeup of the European Parliament. In the case of Britain, voters are electing legislators who will lose their jobs when Brexit is finalized.

It is, Guillot said, "very significant increase in turnout for the very first time since the first European elections took place in 1979."

In Greece, an updated exit poll shows the conservative opposition New Democracy party winning between 32.5% to 34.5% of Sunday's vote for the European Parliament.

Greece's governing left-wing Syriza is projected to get between 24% and 26%. The socialists of Movement for Change are expected to see between 7.2% to 8.2% support; the Communists between 5% to 6%; while the extreme-right Golden Dawn and the nationalist Greek Solution both are projected to get 4% to 5% support.

The threshold to elect one of Greece's 21 European lawmakers is 3%. The exit poll was conducted jointly by five polling firms.

Greece is also voting for regional and local councils Sunday.

Voters from 21 EU nations went to the polls Sunday in the final day of a crucial European Parliament election.

The Greens are celebrating projected strong gains in Germany in the European Parliament elections and a good showing in Ireland.

An exit poll published by the European Parliament says that in Germany, the Greens finished second with 22% support, double their result five years ago. The poll shows that in Ireland the Green Party was in a three-way tie for second place behind the governing Fine Gael party.

Ska Keller of the European Greens hailed the results Sunday evening. She says, "it is a great celebration but it's also a great responsibility. It is a great task to now put into action those things that people asked us to do: Climate protection, social justice in Europe and fighting for civil liberties all over."

The strong showings for the Greens follow protests by students and activists across Europe calling for faster action to tackle climate change.

In Bulgaria, the ruling center-right GERB party is projected to come in first in the European election in that nation, according to an exit poll jointly conducted by two Bulgarian polling firms.

The poll by Alpha Research and Gallup International says GERB is projected to win 30% to 33% of the vote, compared to 23% to 25% for the opposition Socialist party.

The liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms party is projected to win 13%, while a nationalist formation, the VMRO, and the right-wing Democratic Bulgaria party are projected to get between 6% and 8% each.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev says "we need a united and strong Europe" based on solidarity.

Voters from 21 EU nations went to the polls Sunday in the final day of a crucial European Parliament election that could see gains by nationalists and far-right movements. The EU's other seven nations voted earlier this week but results on all the voting will not be released until after all polls close Sunday night.

The center-right candidate to lead the European Union Executive's Commission is promising to bring "stability" to the European Union over the next few years and predicts pro-EU forces will lead the next parliament.

Manfred Weber, the candidate of the European People's Party, said in Berlin that Sunday's European Parliament elections appear to have weakened the political center. He says it's "most necessary for the forces that believe in this Europe, that want to lead this Europe to a good future, that have ambitions for this Europe, ... (to) work together."

He said those forces have to have a "clear division" from other political groups who oppose Europe on both the right and the left.

Weber said the EPP will be "hopefully the strongest group" in the new European parliament. He said "we promised stability, and (we) will guarantee this stability in the coming years."

Spain's Interior Ministry says turnout for the European elections at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) is up to 49.3% from nearly 34.1% in 2014.

Spain is also holding local and some regional elections Sunday, including the highly watched races for the mayor of Madrid and Barcelona. The 2014 European elections were held alone.

Still, turnout was down from Spain's April 28 national election, when it was nearly 60.8% at 1600 GMT.

In Barcelona, a Catalan separatist candidate is trying to oust its incumbent far-left mayor, who says she does not support secession but believes that Catalans should vote on the question.

In Greece, the conservative opposition New Democracy party is projected to win the European election, according to an exit poll jointly conducted by five Greek polling firms.

New Democracy is projected to win 32% to 36% of the vote, compared to 25% to 29% for the ruling left-wing Syriza.

The socialist Movement for Change is projected to win 7% to 9%, while the extreme right Golden Dawn and the Communist party are expected to get between 5% and 7% each.

Two more parties, far-right nationalist Greek Solution and Diem25, the Greek section of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis' European movement, have a chance to exceed the 3% threshold required for sending a representative to the European Parliament.

The poll, with 7,000 respondents, was conducted until 5 p.m. (1400 GMT), two hours before voting ended, and will be updated.

An exit poll shows Germany's governing parties losing significant ground in the European Parliament election, with big gains for the Greens party and a much smaller increase for the far-right.

The ARD television exit poll put support for Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union bloc at 28% and showed their coalition partners in Berlin, the center-left Social Democrats, dropping to a dismal 15.5%. Five years ago, those parties took 35.4% and 27.3% respectively of the vote.

It showed the Greens easily taking second place with 22% — double their result five years ago. The far-right Alternative for Germany was seen with 10.5% support, better than its showing in 2014 but less than it scored in Germany's last national election in 2017.

France's Interior Ministry says turnout for the European Parliament election was up in the country compared to previous vote.

In France, turnout was over 43% at 5 p.m. (1500GMT), compared with 35% at the same time in 2014. Polls remain open until 8 p.m. in the country's big cities.

Several French poll institutes estimate that the final turnout may be over 50% at the end of the day, which would be a first in the country since 1994.

A similar rise in turnout has been observed in neighboring Spain and Germany.

In the whole European Union, turnout for this pan-European vote has trended downward since the first election in 1979. Turnout stood at less than 43% in the 2014 vote.

A projection for Austrian public television and the country's national news agency points to a big win for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's center-right party in the European Parliament election, with the far-right Freedom Party finishing far behind in third place.

The projection was released after polls closed Sunday in Austria. It put support for Kurz's center-right People's Party at 34.5%, with the center-left Social Democrats at 23.5%, the Freedom Party at 17.5% and the Greens at 13.5% support.

It was based on 5,200 interviews conducted from Tuesday to Sunday.

The vote for the joint European Parliament is a the first test in Austria ahead of a national election in September that Kurz called a week ago after a scandal erupted surrounding the Freedom Party's leader. Heinz-Christian Strache quit as party leader and vice chancellor, and the governing coalition between the People's Party and the Freedom Party then collapsed.

Italy's anti-migrant hard-line Interior Minister Matteo Salvini says he feels a "change in the air" and that a win by his right-wing League party would "change everything in Europe."

Salvini's League is seeking to form an alliance of nationalist, populist parties to exert more power in the European Parliament over the affairs of the European Union. He's campaigned relentlessly throughout Italy and has become the face of Europe's far-right by speaking out against migrants and the influence of Muslims in Europe.

The League party, once just a regional power in northern Italy, is gaining strength throughout the country. It's the junior partner in a coalition government with the populist 5-Star Movement, but the coalition is on rocky ground. Salvini may be tempted to end the partnership to seek a new election in Italy if his electoral gains on the European front are significant.

But on Sunday, he voted in the European election and dismissed speculation about seeking new elections.

He told reporters "I'm interested in winning in Italy to change Europe," according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

Turnout appears to be up in several of the European Union's largest countries for the continentwide battle for influence at the European Parliament.

Turnout was up slightly in Spain, France and Germany by mid-afternoon.

In Spain, turnout was up to 35% compared to 24% at the same time in the last European elections in 2014. Spain is also holding municipal and some regional elections —including for mayor of Madrid and Barcelona— while in 2014 the European elections were separate.

In Germany, the federal election authority said that 29% of registered voters had cast ballots by 2 p.m., four hours before polls closed. That's up from 26% at the same time in 2014. The figure doesn't include postal votes.

And in France, turnout was at 19% at noon, compared with 16% at the same time in 2014.

The leader of Spain's upstart far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, asked Spaniards to make "their voice heard" after he cast his ballot in Madrid.

"We come to these elections calling for participation from all Spaniards in accordance to their convictions and principles," Abascal said. "We want to tell them that it is important that each Spaniard has their voice in the municipal and regional institutions, also in the European institutions as, often, this is not seen with much interest by citizens."

Vox erupted into the Spanish political scene in December when it won its first seats in the regional legislature for the Andalusia region. It then won 10% of the vote in national elections on April 28 to enter the Spanish Parliament.

Founded in 2013, Vox failed to win a seat in 2014 European elections, its first electoral test.

Unlike other European far-right parties, Vox is not anti-European Union despite its ultranationalist ideology.

Anti-EU and pro-EU parties are both hoping to make gains in a Brexit-dominated election for British seats in the European Parliament, while the governing Conservative Party is bracing for one of its worst-ever performances.

Daniel Hannan, a Conservative Member of the European Parliament, said he feared the party was facing "total wipeout" and would fail to gain any of Britain's 73 seats.

The Conservatives look likely to be punished for failing to take the country out of the EU as promised. Opinion polls suggest the newly founded Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage is set to take the biggest share of votes. There could also be a surge for the centrist Liberal Democrats, who want to stop Brexit.

In the last EU election in 2014, Farage's former UKIP party won 27% of the vote, helping to build momentum in the push to get Britain out of the EU.

Spaniards in the restive northeastern region of Catalonia are voting in European elections that include two high-profile separatist leaders who are running from jail and self-imposed exile.

Former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont and his ex-No. 2 Oriol Junqueras are both running on competing tickets of separatist parties for the European Parliament.

Junqueras is in jail in Madrid while on trial on charges that include rebellion for his part in Catalonia's attempt to secede from the rest of Spain in 2017. Puigdemont is wanted in Spain and fled to Belgium.

Both have been allowed to run as candidates, but would face legal hurdles to actually become European Parliament members if elected.

Polls and recent election results show that the 7.5 million residents of the wealthy Catalonia region are roughly split by the secession issue. It is highly unpopular in the rest of Spain.

"I think a lot is at stake for Catalonia in the European elections," Manuel Guajardo, a 57-year-old businessman, said after voting in Barcelona. "It will be the definition of a people, to take a path or another path, and these elections will mark this."

Barcelona is also holding municipal elections, where a separatist candidate is trying to oust its incumbent far-left mayor, who says she does not support secession but believes that Catalans should vote on the question.

In Castelbuono, a Medieval mountain town in Sicily's province of Palermo, a steady but sluggish stream of voters is showing up to cast ballots.

Many of the town's residents are backing the 5-Star Movement, a populist party now in a coalition government with the anti-migrant League party.

One of these is Vincenzo Messineo, a 32-year-old laborer who's concerned about youth unemployment and the influx of migrants.

"We don't want them all here," he said. "Europe is united so why can't they be divided among other countries too?"

For Anna Maria Ippolito, a 62-year-old 5-Star Movement supporter, financial inequality is a top concern.

"Six percent of the Italian population has all the wealth," she said. "It's not at all right. Paying the taxes that we do now just lets the rich get richer and the poor poorer."

On Europe, she thinks it's time to rein in the big guns. "Up to now, it's all been about Germany and France," she said. "They're the ones dragging us into this European disaster."

Migrants are on the mind of Silvia Bonomo, too, but she feels Europe needs to "open itself up" and do more to welcome people fleeing war and hardships. The 62-year-old middle-school teacher voted for the center-left Democratic Party.

"They wouldn't be coming if they didn't have a reason to," she said. "Migrants are seen as stealing jobs, which they are not. They're seen as criminals, which they are not. They are just like us."

People's Party Our Slovakia, a far right party that has 14 seats in Slovakia's parliament is expected to win seats in the European legislature for the first time.

The party openly admires the Nazi puppet state that the country was during World War II. Party members use Nazi salutes, blame Roma for crime, consider NATO a terror group and want the country out of the alliance and of the European Union.

The party received a boost in April after Slovakia's Supreme Court dismissed a request by the country's prosecutor general to ban it as an extremist group whose activities violate the Constitution.

Turnout in Slovakia at the previous vote in 2014 was 13%, the lowest in all EU countries.

The polls favor the leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, the senior member of the current coalition government, to top the voting with about 20%. Slovakia has 14 seats in the European Parliament.

The center-right German candidate to head the European Commission says he hopes voters will back a "Europe of stability" and a united and ambitious continent.

Manfred Weber, whose European People's Party group hopes to retain its status as the biggest in the European Parliament, said after voting in his native Bavaria Sunday: "I don't want to see a right-populist Europe (that) wants to destroy the idea of togetherness ... and I'm also against a Europe which is in the hands of the left."

Ska Keller, a German Green who heads her group's European election slate, said in Berlin that "the European Union should lead the way in climate protection. We need social cohesion, we need to strengthen democracy in Europe and I hope that this will meet with much support."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says he hopes the European Parliament elections will strengthen the center rather than parties on the far right and left.

Kurz told reporters in Vienna Sunday that he hopes his center-right People's Party will keep first place in the race for seats in the EU legislature.

The vote has turned into a first test of support ahead of a national election in September following the collapse of Kurz's governing coalition a week ago in a scandal surrounding the now-departed leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which was his junior coalition partner.

Regardless of the result, Kurz faces a no-confidence vote brought by the opposition in parliament Monday. He said he expects the Freedom Party and the Social Democrats to back it, which would bring him down.

Spanish caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says that he hopes the outcome of Sunday's European and local elections will lead to more "political stability" for Spain as he starts his attempt to form a government.

Sánchez called on "all the political forces to open a horizon of political stability" after he voted early Sunday morning with his wife in Madrid.

He added that the elections are "to decide the future of progress and wellbeing for the entirety of our country and Europe."

Voter opinion polls point to a victory for Sánchez's Socialist Party in the European elections. Elections are also taking place for administrations in all Spain's cities, including deciding on a second term for the female mayors of Madrid and Barcelona, and 14 of its 19 regions.

Sánchez's Socialists won April 28 national elections in Spain, but fell short of winning an outright majority and will need to earn the support from rivals in Parliament to stay in power.

Hungary's prime minister says he hopes the European Parliament election will bring a shift toward political parties that want to stop migration.

Viktor Orban said Sunday after casting his vote at a school near his Budapest home that the issue of migration, which he believes is stoppable, "will reorganize the political spectrum in the European Union."

Orban, whose Fidesz party had its membership suspended in the center-right European People's Party, the largest political bloc in the EU parliament, because of concerns about Hungary's democracy, said Fidesz would want to stay in the EPP only if it can influence the group's future strategy.

Orban met recently with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, but has not committed to joining the more radically nationalist alliance that Salvini has been forming.

Fidesz is expected to win up to 14 of Hungary's 21 seats in the EU parliament.

Belgians are heading to the polls in European Union, national and regional elections Sunday.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0700GMT) and the first estimates and exit polls were expected by 6 p.m. (1700GMT). In the national elections Belgians are looking to end months of political limbo after the biggest party in the governing coalition quit over Prime Minister Charles Michel's support for the U.N. migration pact.

Michel has steered a caretaker government doing only day-to-day business since December, but with the country's 8 million voters choosing from more than a dozen parties, chances are that it will prove difficult to quickly form a stable coalition.

Bulgarians are voting in the European Parliament elections after a series of scandals overshadowed the debate on key issues of the EU's future.

Voters on Sunday are casting ballots for their country's 17 seats in the 751-member European Parliament. The vote is seen as a test for the center-right party of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, which suffered a setback after senior officials were involved in corruption scandals.

Latest surveys show only three parties, belonging to mainstream European political groups, passing the election threshold — the ruling GERB party, the Socialist party, and the liberal MRF.

Projections suggest the nationalist and far-right vote will be split between several smaller parties, which could prevent them from capturing seats in the EU legislature. </s> Maltese voters are casting their ballots in a general election that was called against a backdrop of corruption allegations against the centre-left government of Joseph Muscat, current prime minister.

Final opinion polls before Saturday’s vote pointed to 43-year-old Muscat's Labour Party (PL) retaining power with a reduced majority.

Ballot stations are expected to close at 10pm (20:00 GMT).

The PL came to power four years ago after it swept into office on a redistributive, pro-business and socially liberal platform, which has sustained Malta's recent economic success story.

However, polls show that with 20 to 30 percent of the 341,856 registered voters still undecided in the final days of the campaign, analysts had not ruled out a surprise change of government as a result of the fallout from the so-called Panama Papers revelations.

Simon Busuttil, the leader of the opposition Nationalist Party (PN), has framed the vote as a choice between change and allowing Malta's international reputation, and its prosperity, to be shredded by a series of scandals.

Muscat went to the polls a year early after his wife, Michelle Muscat, was accused of being the beneficial owner of a secret Panamanian shell company used to bank unexplained payments from Azerbaijan's ruling family.

"It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me to weather the storm on the seat of power, while waiting for the magisterial inquiry to clear my name before calling an election," he said.

 

"However, in those few months the economy would have been damaged and jobs would have been lost," he said in defence of his decision to go to the polls.

The premier's chief of staff and a government minister have separately admitted having their own, previously undeclared Panama-registered companies, following revelations from last year's massive data leak from the Mossack Fonseca legal firm based in the Central American country.

READ MORE: Panama Papers - Why some of this is perfectly legal

Muscat came under fire for not sacking the two men.

The allegations against his inner circle have since broadened to include claims that kickbacks were paid in relation to an investment-based citizenship scheme, a gas supply deal with China, and bank licensing.

Shortly before calling the election, Muscat asked a magistrate to look into the allegations against his wife and promised to quit if he was shown to have an undeclared offshore account.

An antiquated manual vote-counting system, being used for the last time, means no reliable indicator of the result will be available before midday on Sunday.
Primo ! Priorité Monaco, a new political party, wins 21 of the 24 seats in the National Council.