As expected, and after five years of economic crisis, a number of euro-sceptic, populist, far right and far left parties made gains in last week’s European Parliament elections. Most of these parties reject the values on which the EU has been built over the years, such as solidarity, pluralism and shared sovereignty, and their only intention is to wreck the European project.

The most dramatic results took place in France and the UK: Marine Le Pen’s far right National Front came first with a staggering 26 per cent of the popular vote (and 25 of France’s 74 seats) and Nigel Farage’s anti-EU Ukip came first with 27.5 per cent of the vote (and 24 of the UK’s 73 MEPs).

Britain’s pro-EU Liberal Democrats lost all but one of their 10 MEPs, while in France the ruling Socialists saw their share of the vote decrease to a historic low of 13 per cent.

There were also other worrying results: Denmark’s anti-immigration People’s Party came first with nearly 27 per cent of the vote; in Austria there were big gains for the far right eurosceptic Freedom Party, which received 20 per cent of the vote; in Sweden, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats won nearly 10 per cent of the vote; and in Germany the Alternative for Germany party, which is not anti-EU but anti-euro, polled over six per cent of the vote.

There was even worse news: Greece’s Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party, came third with 9.4 per cent while in Hungary the neo-fascist Jobbik party came second in the popular vote with 15 per cent, (although its share fell from 21 per cent in April’s general election).

Perhaps the saddest result is the fact that the German National Democratic Party, a neo-Nazi party which received one per cent of the German popular vote, will now have an MEP. This is thanks to the stupid decision of the German Constitutional Court which threw out the three per cent threshold required to gain representation to the European Parliament.

There were also gains by the populist and far left in two countries: In Spain the United Left coalition, linked to Spain’s former Communist party, came third, with 10 per cent of the vote while a new left-wing party, called Podemos (‘we can’), took eight per cent of the vote. In Greece, the left-wing Syriza came first with 26.6 per cent of the vote.

Not all right-wing parties which expected to make gains, however, did so. Finland’s anti-immigration Finns party – previously known as the True Finns – saw its share of the vote decrease to 13 per cent compared to the last national election when it won 19 per cent. And the most welcome upset result probably came from the Netherlands, where the anti-EU and populist Freedom Party, which was predicted to win up to 23 per cent of the vote, won only 13 per cent, down from 17 per cent in 2009.

There was good news coming from Germany where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU/CSU consolidated its lead at 35.3 per cent, while its coalition partner, the Social Democrats, increased its share of the vote to 27.3 per cent. In Italy, too, there was good news, with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party coming first with 41per cent of the vote. Renzi easily beat Beppe Grillo’s Eurosceptic Five Star Movement, which came second with 21 per cent, a decrease of four per cent since last year’s national election. Both Merkel and Renzi are reform-minded leaders, so their success at the polls is certainly welcome.

While a number of voters turned to populist parties and sent a strong message to both Brussels and their national governments, the result cannot be described as a rejection of the EU. The overwhelming majority of voters voted for mainstream pro-EU centrist parties, and the election was won by the centre-right European People’s Party, followed by the Socialists, Liberals and Greens.

The right-wing, populist and eurosceptic parties remain a minority in the European Parliament; however, this minority now controls almost 25 per cent of the seats, which is certainly of some concern.

These results no doubt show that some voters in the EU are concerned over the level of migration into the bloc and want more control over their economic policies. These concerns obviously need to be addressed, while keeping in mind that the EU is a success story that has brought about numerous benefits to Europe’s citizens but is nevertheless in need of reform.

Speaking on French TV, President François Hollande said Europe had become “remote and incomprehensible”. He added: “Europe has to be simple, clear, to be effective where it is needed and to withdraw from where it is not necessary”.

The most dramatic results took place in France and the United Kingdom

EU’s leaders meeting on Tuesday in the aftermath of the elections acknowledged that EU institutions have become too powerful and were not meeting the needs of EU citizens. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the summit had agreed to re-evaluate the bloc’s agenda after voters “sent a strong message”.

Van Rompuy also pointed out that EU leaders had asked him to launch consultations over the next President of the European Commission. Although former Luxembourg prime minister Jean Claude Juncker, the candidate of the EPP (which won the elections), is the front-runner, his appointment is not guaranteed, as British Prime Minister David Cameron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (whose own party belongs to the EPP) oppose his nomination on the grounds that he is too federalist.

It is important that whoever is appointed European Commission President, however, is reform-driven and must not think that it can be ‘business as usual’ for Brussels.

I have no doubt that the EU’s right-wing parties will now do their utmost to disrupt the proceedings of the European Parliament. However, many of these parties are bitterly divided among themselves; most of them might be anti-EU, but there exist many policy differences between them. Some are fascists or Nazis, others are clearly racist, while others are populist, euroseptic or just anti-euro.

To form an official political group in the European Parliament, which means more funds and more influence, at least 25 MEPs from seven member states are needed. So far France’s National front, the Netherlands’ Freedom party, Austria’s Freedom Party, Italy’s Lega Nord and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang are keen on joining together, but this is two short of the required threshold.

Finally, EU member states will have to come to terms with the fact that the voter turnout in these European Parliament elections has been declining. The average turnout last week was 43.1 per cent (in Malta it was a high 74.8 per cent) and in the Czech Republic and Slovakia the turnout was a ridiculous 18.2 per cent and 13 per cent. Europe definitely needs some serious soul-searching.