The Far Right appeared to be making big gains in Germany and Austria in the European elections, polls showed, contributing to Netherlands offering the first signs that an expected shift to the right in the European Parliament is taking place.

The far-right Alternative for Germany came second behind the opposition conservatives with 16.5% of the vote, up from 11% in 2019, according to an exit poll published by public broadcaster ARD.

All three parties in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition suffered losses, according to the poll. Meanwhile, in Austria, the far-right Freedom Party is the likely winner of the ballot box, according to a poll based on surveys conducted last week and published as voting closed on Sunday night.

In the Netherlands, which voted on Thursday, exit polls showed nationalist Geert Wilders’ anti-immigrant party was set to win 7 of the 29 Dutch seats in the EU assembly, just one short of the combined seats of a Social Democrat-Green alliance.

What developments are underway in the new European Parliament?

According to Reuters, the new European Parliament is likely to be cooler on policies to tackle climate change, while being willing to support measures to limit immigration to the EU.

Parliament could also be more fragmented, which would make passing any measure more difficult and slower as the EU faces challenges including a hostile Russia and increased industrial competition from China and the United States.

It also means that both the German chancellor Olaf Solz as well as the French president Emmanuel Macronwhose party is expected to be defeated by far-right Marine Le Pen, could appear diminished and weakened.

For many years, voters across the bloc have complained that decision-making in the EU is complicated, distant and disconnected from everyday reality, which explains the often low turnout in EU elections.

Hard-line and far-right parties have taken advantage of this and offer the electorate an alternative solution.

“Anyone who believes that we need a change of course and that things can be much better in Brussels has only one alternative, which is Vox,” Spain’s far-right party’s leading candidate, Jorge Buxade, said after the vote in Madrid.

In the Belgiumvoters are also electing federal and regional chambers on Sunday and are expected to support the far-right Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang in record numbers, although it could be kept out of office by other parties.