A week after the election and after a total of 21 recounts, Ireland has finally counted up its EU parliament members for the coming five years.
The result strengthens the centre groups in the EU, as the liberal government party Fianna Fáil has increased from two to four seats, and the social democratic Labour party has gained its first seat since 2014. The governing dominant conservative Fine Gael loses from five to four – which is still an increase compared to the opinion polls before the election.
The losers of the Irish election are The Green Party, which loses both its members in the EU parliament. At the same time, two of the previous parliament's most fiery left-wing members – Mick Wallace and Clare Daly – failed to be re-elected as independents.
Ireland, which held its EU election last Friday, has 14 seats in the EU parliament and votes according to a complicated system where voters rank candidates. This, in turn, makes the counting take time as votes constantly need to be redistributed.
