In the end, the centre held. The far right's gains in this month's European elections, while historic, were not the continent-wide romp that some Europe-watchers had predicted. After the nail biting, the groups that set the agenda in the old European Parliament are not much different from those in the newly elected body. But nationalist conservative and hard-right parties do hold about a quarter of the seats in parliament, potentially giving them lots of sway on policies ranging from climate change to immigration to farm subsidies. If they were to coalesce in a grand coalition – a big if, given the far right's divisions – they could tear up the European playbook as we know it. We discuss what's at stake with two MEPs.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille and Anaïs Boucher