CLARIFICATION: At 1:22 in this video, we say that Sweden had the most left-leaning results of any EU country. This is true, but it was equalled by Portugal, which also gave 10 out of 21 seats to left-wing and far-left parties. Eight seats went to the Partido Socialista (which sits in the EU's Socialists & Democrats bloc), one seat went to the Bloco de Esquerda (which sits in the EU's Left bloc), and one seat went to the Unitary Democratic Coalition (which also sits in the EU's Left bloc). Thanks for watching!

Small Note, the only party in Sweden which actually lost a mandate was the Christian Democrats (KD), meanwhile the Left Party (V) gained a seat, so overall the mandates didn't change dramatically.

I love the Swedes’ Eurovision-style exit poll reveal more than I should

I was confused why you didn't talk about Norway and I remembered Norway isn't an EU member lol

In Finland, right-wing voters were not as invested in the election as leftists, and the Left Alliance leader Andersson is extremely popular, getting nearly 14% of all votes just by herself, the most ever in a Finnish election outside the presidential elections.

I'm Swedish and I think your analysis is accurate. Well done! However, I might add that historically there has only been a weak correlation between results in the EU-elections and in the elections for our national parliament. In our national elections there is often a fair amount of tactical voting.

As a dane i am pretty into danish politics, and if you look into the policies of even our "socialist" parties they are also very anti-immigrant. We have an EU test organised by "altinget", a newspaper in denmark, and they make questions, which the politicians answer, those questions included questions on immigration. Youre then supposed to take the test yourself, and figure out who you most agree with. But you can also just see all the politicians answers. The main kandidate for the danish social democrats answered very anti-immigration on all migration related questions. 1: Eu should have more boats in the Mediterranean to save the migrants? She answered disagree. 2: We should have migrant centers outside of the eu. She said agree. In denmark even the leftist parties are against migration, which most leftists parties arent in most of europe, which is why right parties have seen a surge in the rest of europe. 4/6 main candidates for left leaning parties all answered agree or strongly agree to having asylum centers outside of the EU. I cant speak for sweden, but in denmark every party is more or less for deporting migrants if not at minimum illegal migrants, and immigrants of all sorts who have been caught in criminal acts. So if youre already a socialist, and want stronger immigration policies, you dont have to change sides in denmark, because even socialist parties want fewer immigrants.

SVT making everything Eurovision is so funny

The nationalists of nordics tend to be pretty anti-eu, the voters more so than the parties themselves, and thus as some sort of protest they tend to not vote in EU elections.

Sweden also had a huge 'strong candidate effect' in jonas sjöstedt who was previously the leader of the left party, and who always polled ridiculously well

@0:28 This is wrong. The center-right Finnish Coalition Party, whose emblem is shown here, didn't lose vote share. Instead, the populist right wing ECR Finns Party lost big time.

6:00 "Li Andersson, the leader of the socialist left alliance" is one confusing sentence to hear for people familiar with UK politics.

Something similar also happened in The Netherlands: The biggest party in our national elections was the PVV (by far), but the biggest party in our EU elections was GL-PvdA, also with a low turnout rate.

It is important to point out EU elections do not translate to national elections in Sweden. Something like what happened in France where new elections would never be called based on EU election results for example. People acting like the national elections will swing left now because of the EU vote but to put it into context the last times the greens did well in an EU election 15% in 2014 their national election results that same year was 6.89%. It just dosen't translate.

For me, the most surprising part of the results here in Finland was that the Left Alliance got more seats than the Social Democrats.

I can’t speak for all nordic countries.. But the two most important issues in Denmark were Climate Change and Defence (i.e Russia, and support for Ukraine). Both are topics that the right don’t tend to excel at..

The Finns Party, it could be that their voters don't care for EU elections. Or, their popularity has dropped because they're in the government now. Hard to say which is it or maybe even both.

50% is not a low turnout at all, in croatia during our EU elections only 21% of the people voted.

The conservatives in Denmark, whoose logo was shown in the beginning did not loose vote share

I spat my tea when I thought you said Lee Anderson. I guess Li Anderson from Finland has slightly different politics.

In Denmark they only gained power and influence and when the far right party became the second largest party in Denmark (largest on the right) they simply did not join in to form a government. If you're the largest party on your side there's an unspoken rule that you take charge to form or join a government coalition! Especially when so many people vote for you to lead the country...

As a swede. The main issue that I rarely see talked about is that the Swedish democratic voter base just didn’t vote. Only the greens really outperformed the polls. Having dropped a Swexit demand their base just didn’t show up. 50% of the people voted and the polls were roughly correct except for the greens and SD. The recent national poll put them back close to 20%. The Greens really did an incredible job galvanising their base to get out and vote.

“Vaccinated against the The far-rigth” while stating they have been in government. Then shows Danish DF-party which famously has never been in government XD

Denmark's social democrats aren't really left at this point

Li Andersson is probably the most loved politician in Finland. She gets votes over party limits. She was amazingly popular in this election. She broke the old record almost by a 100 000 votes! She got total just shy of 250 000 votes, pulling two other left candidates into EU! All this while the far right Perusuomalaiset lost a seat. Also the "religious" party Kristillisdemokraatit lost their only seat. Kristillisdemokraatit really is just another right wing conservative party.

In Sweden, it was seemingly exclusively an issue of voter turnout. Traditionally left leaning areas (meaning inner cities) saw voting turnout as high as 70-80% while areas with more pro right wing voters saw a turnout as low as 30% in some cases. And to ascribe this to political policy during the election doesn’t seem very accurate as this isn’t something new. The last EU election was practically the same when it came to the over representation of voters in major cities.

DF is in ID and is far right in Denmark, not unafiliated

I love and you really got me and kill me with a lot of laughs when you show the exact extract clip from SVT announcing the results. And you put “Very dramatic” “very EUROVISION” 😂😂 and I can’t agree more with you guys it is SO SIMILAR TO EUROVISION FINAL TELE-VOTING VIBES! 😂😅😂😅😂 AND JUST A MOTH BEFORE SWEDEN HOST EUROVISION 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Thanks for the video guys! Greetings from Mexico 🇲🇽!

In Denmark the green left git a good election for lot off old social democrats voters have move that there angry over there have form a center government and cancel a holiday

6:18 The NCP candidate who received 88700 votes is called Pekka Toveri, not ”Pekka Ioveri”.

Meanwhile in Sweden, we have Jonas Sjöstedt, a former party-leader for the Left Party, who is extremely popular, experienced and well-respected. He was a magnet on the left.

“Very Eurovision” best way to describe the elections, I’d wager

4:50 "Something true is similar"😂 I think he mixed up his words

Good analysis. I kinda feared how in depth this would be but Finland was well covered. The policies the parties in the government have pushed forwards have proven to be bad to many of their voters so those voters were likely to stay out of ballot boxes. In addition about Li Andersson, she is known to have her arguments filled with facts and for that she is rather respected by anyone in politics even if the politician in question would have differing and opposing views to her on the matter at hand. She is a rare breed and will serve the EU well. Basically her first comment after the results were out was that we must secure aid to Ukraine so there's that also.

Classifying venstre as centre is amusing

God I wish we had coalition governments in the us😭

One thing that I think this analysis misses is regarding Swedens stance on climate change as a political issue for the EU. Here in Sweden combating climate change has become one of the most prominent questions associated with EU elections, and less so with national politics. This is due to the rationale that climate change is global challenge which sees no borders. Parties with strong/trustworthy platforms on combating climate change have therefore done well.

The danish left is more right wing than the swedish right wing just so you know.

It's kinda fun to try to predict the sponsor by the closing remarks. At first, I was convinced it would be Ground News because of the remarks about different perspectives, but when they showed the stock footage symbolizing complexity, it became obvious to me that it had to be Brilliant.

The description for Denmark is slightly wrong. Of the 4 seats won by parties to the right of the Renew Europe group, 2 were won by parties intending to affiliate with EPP, 1 was won by the Danish People's Party, which sits in the ID group, and 1 was won by the Denmark Democrats, which prior to the election said it would join ECR, but has not formally committed to it yet. To the extent that there is an "unaffiliated MEP", that would be the one from the Denmark Democrats, who is still on the right. The graphic incorrectly seems to imply it's the MEP from the Danish People's Party.

OMG! Please, pleeeease tell me the source, where that video of the Swedish results announcement came from. I need to see the whole video 😂

If more left-leaning parties elsewhere in Europe were stricter on migration then right wing parties would lose there more too

Li Anderson broke the record for most votes on the EU elections in Finland by almost 100 000 votes. The previous record was held by the Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party. It was set in 1996 and it was 157 000 votes.

Excellent video adding some nuance to the EU election coverage!

2:35 "often described in media as far-right" made me skeptical, so I looked it up on my own. Going by what I can find the Finns Party is fascist with important figures having publicly known ties to nazi-movements across Scandinavia.

I've said it since the beginning and I'll continue to say it. Europeans aren't turning more to the right they're turning against mass immigration and for most nations its only the right that recognise it as a problem. The second left and centre parties start taking peoples concerns about mass immigration seriously support for right wing parties essentially elaborates over night, like we're seeing in the Nordics. Hopefully other left and centre European parties wake up to this and save Europe from mass immigration aswell as from a decade under the far right.

The message I get out of this is that Nordic left leaning parties have listened to their voters, unlike many in other countries that are continuing to double-down on failed or unpopular policies.

Honestly, with the single exception of German SPD, that night was not neither a bad night nor a good night for the S&Ds. The French Socialists SOMEWHAT revived. Edit: the same cannot be said about the Greens, which they had it coming.

I can tell what my dad did, when he got his voting papers he threw them in the trash and said "I did not vote No in the EU referendum(1994) to give a shit what Bryssel say or does".

I really with you guys would use a different map projection. Mercator is just terrible for anyone not actively navigating the seas, but it feels even worse, dare I say Lazy, in this context, comparing northern and southern European countries. There are so many better maps out there, why use the worst one?

Turnout for the EU elections are always low in DK. This one is the second highest turnout we've ever had, only falling behind the election before that, which saw a spike due to our national elections being a week later.

Did anyone else's UK brain melt for a moment when "Li Andersson" was mentioned as being a good politician 😂

I think it’s a combination of low voter turnout and that the right is currently in power since 2022 at least here in Sweden. People are always more critical of the ones in power. However in terms of seats it didn’t actually change much. Only one seat went from the right to the left.

In Finland biggest surprice was that the left party improved result from 5-7% up to 17% and was more popular than sosial democratic party. This was due to the left being the only party opposing Gaza war from the begining. Additionally, Li Andersson was the only party leader with "young female leader" after Sanna Marin.

What would be the election results if voters in every country believed their elected officials weren't listening .....

Wandered over here from Nebula to say I thought this is one of your better scripts. I may be wrong as I don't know about the subject matter, but I felt like you were able to have meaningful analysis without resorting picking facts to support a narrative (essentially the norm in today's "journalism"). More insightful and less calculated, IMHO. Thank you.

In Denmark, it is more correct to say 7 went to the center. The Socialdemocrats haven't had social democratic policies in years... recently they've removed a national holiday and targeted the unemployed... and when it comes to immigration they are definitely far right, recently said having a well paid job, education and being raised in the country is no sure sign of being integrated

Scandinavia is the only area on planet earth that had it’s head screwed on right

We want a video about Bulgaria 🇧🇬 It is a big political chaos here. The far-right Bulgarian political party 'Revival' (Vazrazhdane / Възраждане) will send 3 MPs in the EU parliament. They have good relationship with AfD in Germany.

They went left because it’s the only sensible decision.

Why did you use the Moderate party logo when saying the right lost percentages in Sweden? That is the only major party on the right that increased its share of the votes.

6:02 I'm sorry but it cracks me up that Finland has a politician called Li Andersson who is on the left 🤣 Could we do a swap please? :-)

1:36 error here. This is where they announced the election result, not the exit poll. Altough the exit poll result was announced in a similar fashion. Of course.

You missed the mark. It is almost universally agreed upon in Sweden that 'climate and environment' are the most important questions for EU - that's why we vote more left in EU elections. The right simply has less ambitious environmental goals.

I'll always be confused about people who vote far right to be anti-establishment. They're conservatives. The core of all conservatism is maintaining the establishment. That's, like, the definition of conserving.

As a Swede im very proud of my fellow countrymen and nordic brothers for choosing to maintain their humanity rather than surrendering it to right wing fearmongering

I think people are somewhat ignoring the effects of the presidential elections that were held in Finland only some months ago. The EU elections are very much focused on personal popularity, and the leader of the Left Alliance Li Andersson was one of the candidates. The only presidential candidate to run in the EU elections. And she pretty much single-handedly dragged the two other member of Left Alliance with her. Those two didn't get in on their own votes. Li Andersson has basically been running a personal campaign for a year now, and was by far the most recognizable candidate on offer.

According to SVT studies, a bigger turnout in Sweden would have benefited mostly the left parties and slightly the far right SD

Many people around me voted for a different party in the EU election than in the Swedish general election, mainly because they wanted different questions to be pushed at an EU level

If those towards the "far" right are anti-EU it'd sort of make logical sense for that grouping to have a lower turnout on EU elections

Several corrections with regard to Denmark. At 0:26, you mention center and far-right parties losing vote share, but display the logo of the Conservatives, which gained vote share. At 2:20, you show 3 MEPs for the right and mention one unaffiliated MEP. However, you misidentified the unaffiliated MEP in your graphics, showing the Danish Democrats as being with the right when they are the unaffiliated group. The remaining seat, the Danish People's Party, is affiliated with the ID group.

In Denmark, nation-specific trend would also be the center coalition government unilaterally deleting a bank holiday just AFTER the 2022 election (nothing mentioned preelection) completely ignoring the usual union/employer organisation-deals. The EU-election has been the first chance to express disapproval with those parties (Soc.dem, Venstre, Moderates)

Will you make a video's about Belgium's (national and regional) election results?

The "Centre" party in sweden is just right wing btw

In Denmark, the Left won because the government is extremely unpopular, not a little, but extremely. The Liberal Alliance had a horrible campaign, which was slightly misogynistic. The Danish Peoples Party was shown to not even come to EU meetings.

you mention that there was an unaffiliated MP in Denmark which won, which is not true, that went to the danish peoples party, who sits in ID

They're not that similar at all, in Denmark even the left-wing parties oppose mass immigration, in Sweden it's a far more open topic and the recent talk of restrictions is really only due to the consequences that were being evidenced and making the left vastly unpopular, if the left did not reverse track on immigration in Sweden then their defeat would be a foregone conclusion because the problem just kept getting worse and worse and the government refused to answer the public's appeals. Whenever your government acts in such a manner arrogantly ignoring the wishes of the electorate, then they will get punished in the election for it, so the best thing the Swedish left is doing is precisely, push the right into awkward coalitions where it can't actually get any of it's more extreme proposals passed but can still be part of the "system" to undermine it's anti-system allure and additionally at least talk of restricting mass immigration even if you don't ultimately do it to placate the right's biggest selling point. You cannot counter the general public wishes and expect to win elections, if you notice that a lot of people are talking about a particular issue, that's a sign you cannot ignore it or you will lose seats, no matter how you feel about it, politics is about doing what the public wants not just what you want, you cannot afford such a disconnection between your party and the general public. Note that you need to follow through somewhat, if you start talking about opposing mass migration you can't do what the tories in the UK did and let in record numbers, that makes you look like a liar and your own electorate will bitterly despise you for it and revel in punishing you, look how many conservatives in the UK are openly cheering "zero seats" for the tories. That's punishment from your own electorate for lying and absolutely what you don't want in any circumstance cause that endangers your entire party.

As an american i feel i can usually look to the scandi/nordic countries as a steady hand on the world stage. More than even my own gov at this point lol

And Norway's up there, chilling.

In Denmark some of the result going to SF, could also be credited to the thursday before the election, when there was a debate among all parties participating (which was broadcasted on live television), where a lot of people felt that the other candidates were just talking bad about all other parties, while the leading candidate from SF mostly focused on what they actually wanted to do, instead of focusing on the other parties and why they shouldn't be voted in. (this is what i have heard from a lot of people who normally don't vote for SF, but did this time)

its basically cause the reason for the rightwing shift is basically just anti immigration, whereas in nordics most centre left parties even are anti immigration

This is great news

1:45 Imagine if that happened for the UK Election

can I just ask, why is nody talking about belgium? I always hear about france but belgium barely mentioned if anything, what actually happened there?

So basically, the only reason we dont see a gain for far right in Nordic countries is that no matter who has the power, they aren't going to pursue a different policy

Lee Anderson????

Honestly for Europes sake, it should be a continent wide thing... So blind that they can't even see they are being taken over.

I see a Eurovision-reference, I press like!

Scandinavia has historically been a left leaning region due to its roots of communalism and social trust.

Because they saw how the right is doing in other countries 😂

I might be wrong, but a pattern I’ve noticed is that the EU elections have been generally going against whichever party is currently in power in their respective countries. Right wing parties did well in France and Germany, for example, where moderates/centrists are in power, while doing poorly in Hungary and Slovakia, which are being run by far right leaders. It might be that the general population of each country is blaming their respective leadership for the current economic slump Europe is facing, and is voting against them in response.

@04:50 "Something true is similar (...)" Wait... What? Did you really just say that?? 😆

Perhaps because people are more logical and don't fall for the right's fear mongering and false promises.

Quite evident this is made by people not living in a nordic country.

Now, I can't speak for Finland or Sweden, but in Denmark, another reason for the left-ward shift is due to dissatisfaction with the incumbent coalition government between the Social Democrats (A), the Moderates (M) and the Liberals (V). Meaning these parties gained fewer votes than normal and many of the vote share moved further left than the Social Democrats, these being the Socialistic People's Party (SF, or the Green-Lefts) and the Red-Green Alliance. More conservative voters tend to stick with the Conservatives (C) rather than the Liberal Alliance (LA) who are considered more extreme and radical in their views, and even then, you'll find that most conservatives will vote for the more moderate centre-right Liberal Party (V). There are also many candidate tests provided by news outlets, helping voters figure out which specific candidates, rather than party, they align most with. These tests have been become increasingly popular in the last three elections, making it easier to figure out where a person lies specifically on the political spectrum, and thus help them decide which party or person they should vote for.

As a Dane I cannot recognize the situation you describe, There has been no significant move to the left in our distribution of representatives. 1. The Radical Left party B (Centrist usually supporting Social Democrats) lost one seat. 2. The Socialist Peoples party SF (Why you name them Green Left eludes me - almost all Danish parties claim to be green)) won one seat. 3. Venstre (Left) (the old Liberal party) recently disintegrated splitting off the new parties Moderaterne M (I'd call them populists - founded by the former prime minister and chairman of Venstre, who I think just couldn't let go of power) and Danmarksdemokraterne (National Liberals). We consider Venstre a right wing party, and I am not sure wgere to put Moderaterne, but in any case Venstre lost 2 seats and the two splitoffs won one seat each. So together the group got the same number of seats as before. So where is this big shift left?

Short answer: Because they use their brain.

Two things for the swedish results: The far right is anti-EU and because of that less interested to vote in this election. And the far left party has been the only one on the palestinian side in the on-going war in Israel. That probably gave them some sympathi among certain groups of voters.

The trends arent really so much going to the left or right, its more about going against the established governments that have caused so many issues and insecurities. For most of Europe that means shifting right, for the Nordic nations its going left.

You forget to include the Danish People's Party which got one seat and is a member of the ID group. The unafiliated seats went to the right-wing Denmark Democrats who have announced that they will likely join the ERC. You also used the logo of the Swedih Social Democrats instead of the Danish ones.