As prognosed, the regional elections in France turned out to be a setback for the UMP who are governing on the national level. The socialists succeeded not only in keeping contol of all the regional governments they already had, but also taking new mandates. This success for the left is by many experts seen as a mistrust against president Nicholas Sarkozy and the UMP government.

Sources: Le Monde, Le Figaro, Euronews.

The German election for the Bundestag (federal parliament) resulted in that the current chancellor Angela Merkel can continue in office, but with a change of coalition partner. Instead of the grand coalition between CDU/CSU and SDP, there will now be a more traditional coalition between the Christian democrats in CDU/CSU and the liberal FDP.

Source: ARD

The elections to the European parliament turned out to be a success for the smaller parties in many of the member states, not the least the green parties. Among the more unexpected outcomes was also the fact that the newly founded Pirate Party of Sweden got enough votes to get a seat in the European parliament.