Ireland announced its European election results on Friday (June 14) after five days of counting, the longest in the EU, giving the majority of its seats to two centre-right parties in the governing coalition: Fine Gael And Fianna Fail.

The Fine Gael Prime Minister Simon Harris (European People's Party, EPP) won 20.79% of the vote. Fianna's failure (New Europe) Deputy Prime Minister Michael Martin was close behind with 20.44% of the vote. Both parties won four of Ireland's 14 seats in the European Parliament.

The Independents won three seats, including one for the Left Group (GUE/NGL), the main Irish opposition party Sinn Féin (GUE/NGL) will benefit from two seats during the next European legislature.

The Labor Party (European Socialists and Democrats, S&D) can count on an MEP.

Although Ireland was among the first countries to vote last Friday, counting only began on Sunday (June 9) and was not completed until Friday.

This delay is mainly explained by the complicated voting system. The voter does not vote for an already formed list, but draws up his own list by ranking the candidates in order of preference, and counting requires several rounds.

Candidates wait nervously for days for the votes of the excluded candidates to be exchanged.

The voting method was commented on on social networks 'Ireland's Favorite Slow-Motion High-Adrenaline Sport'or “The perfect election plot combined with the suspense of the Eurovision countdown”.

One of the only Irish events was reported to have taken place on the first day of counting last Sunday.

In County Clare (west), the final of a hurling tournament, a Gaelic sport similar to field hockey, one of the main events in the Irish sporting calendar, was stopped for hours.

[Édité par Anne-Sophie Gayet]