Ireland announced its European election results this Friday after five days of counting, the longest in the EU, giving the majority of its seats to the two centre-right parties in the governing coalition.

Prime Minister Simon Harris's Fine Gael and Deputy Prime Minister Michael Martin's Fianna Fáil each won four of the 14 seats in the European Parliament. The main Irish opposition party Sinn Féin (left) won two seats, Labor one and the Independents the last three.

Among the first countries to vote last Friday

Ireland was among the first countries to vote last Friday, but counting did not begin 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. So the candidates are nervously waiting for days for the votes of the excluded candidates to be exchanged.

The voting method has been described on social media as “Ireland's favorite slow-motion high-adrenaline sport” or “the perfect electoral intrigue 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, hurling, a Gaelic sport similar to field hockey that is one of the staples of the Irish sporting calendar, was halted for several hours during the final of the tournament.