Socialists, populists left empty handed in EU elections, Labour the big winner

Almost all the votes in the European Parliament elections have been counted. As exit polls predicted, the PvdA is the big winner in the Netherlands. While the exit polls said Labour would get five seats, the party now stands at six. Populist PVV and socialists SP walk away with no seats, RTL Nieuws reports.

According to the preliminary results, the VVD and CDA are the second largest parties for the Netherlands with four seats each. Left-wing GroenLinks and far-right FvD each got three. The remaining six seats for the Netherlands went two each to D66 and ChristenUnie/SGP, and one each to animal party PvdD and 50Plus.

The PVV dropped from four seats to zero, though the party still has hope for one seat. If the United Kingdom leaves the European Union - scheduled to happen at the end of October - the Netherlands' seats in the European Parliament will increase from 26 to 29. According to data from ANP's election service, those three extra seats will go one each to the PVV, GroenLinks and VVD.

SP lost both its seats in the European Parliament in this election. Party leader Lilian Marijnissen called it a "hard blow", according to the broadcaster. "We didn't hit the right note to convince people to vote for us", she said.

The European Parliament has a total of 751 seats - 750 European parliamentarians and one president. The seats are divided across the Member States based on the number of inhabitants per country. The Netherlands currently has 26 seats, and that will increase to 29 after the Brexit.

Throughout Europe, the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats suffered major defeats. While they are still the two largest groups in the European Parliament, they lost their majority for the first time. According to the forecasts, the Christian Democrats, to which the CDA belongs, will drop from 221 to 173 seats. The Social Democrats, which include the PvdA, will go from 191 to 147 seats. Other alliances gained ground. The Greens, which include GroenLinks, will climb from 50 to 71 seats. The Liberals, which include the VVD and D66, are expected to go from 67 to 102 seats.