Centre-right won elections 'on socialist ticket'[fr][de] 

"It is not the centre-right winning, but rather the centre-left going down, and the votes are shifting to extremist parties," he said, commenting on the results. "Mainstream centre-right parties in most places have adopted the agenda of social democrats," meaning that "they are now in favour of public spending as a result of the economic crisis," Hix added. 

The analyst said the lack of major ideological differences between the two opponents proved fatal for the Socialists, as the centre-right managed to convince voters that they knew how to run the economy more effectively. 

Socialists "didn't do anything different to present themselves in these elections. They did not propose a Commission president, which they could easily have done. Their voters expected them to respond to the economic crisis, and they didn't," Hix said. 

Instead, they "blamed America and the liberals for the crisis. They did not offer anything different to the centre-right," he added, saying this also explained the success in some countries of the Greens and the populist far-right.

Hix does not think the far-right's gains will affect the modus operandi of the next Parliament. "I don't think there will be a far-right group in the European Parliament, because those groups are so different. I don't believe [Dutch populist politician Geert] Wilders is going to sit with the BNP [British National Party]," he argued. 

According to Hix, the dramatic loss of Socialist influence in the next Parliament will redefine the balance of power within the assembly and redraw the coalition map. 

"The new group to the right of the EPP is going to become quite influential now, because the EPP is going to need them as allies for a bunch of things. If the Conservatives can get enough parties to sit with them in a group, they will get about 50-something seats, so they will be the fourth largest group in the Parliament," Hix said. 

New political alliances will be key to finding a suitable candidate to become the next president of the European Parliament, who has so far been chosen by informal agreements between the two biggest groups, the EPP-ED and the Socialists. 

The new coalitions will also affect the appointment of the new Commission president. The Parliament is expected to approve the next president of the Commission in mid-July, by simple majority in a secret ballot.

To read the interview in full, please click here.