It was a typical election night of nail biting, commiseration, surprises, and ultimately elation, but 2014 has been special as we witnessed ERC dominate the Catalan elections to return two MEPs, Josep Terricabras and Ernest Maragall, become the leading party of Catalonia, and send a clear message globally on the right to decide for independence.

In Scotland the SNP scored a spectacular success, increasing their vote and returning Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith. Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru), starting from a low 11% in the polls, stormed back to retain her seat and win 15% of the vote. Fantastic news came from the coalition “Los Pueblos deciden”, comprising EH-Bildu (EA, Aralar) and BNG, with Josu Juaristi winning a seat and the most votes in the Basque Country.

Meanwhile, the NVA dominated the Belgian vote winning four MEPs.

The greatest surprise, and arguably the icing on the cake, was the victory of Primavera Europea by our friends from Aragon and Valencia to return Jordi Sebastia as MEP, while Russian Latvian Union’s MEP, Tatjana Zdanoka, was re-elected after a strong campaign to keep her seat.

In the interim period before the first Plenary in July the different political groups are busy with meetings and negotiations. The new Parliament has been transformed with the two largest groups losing seats while EFA and the Greens may hold their position as the fourth biggest party.

Across Europe the vote for greater autonomy or independence has gained ground and as we approach the two history making referendums of the 21st century support for self-determination in one form or another has never been stronger. As the EFA slogan says, “It’s Time for Self Determination.”

UDB gained 2% across a ‘Grand Ouest’ constituency (which include Pays de Loire), and around 2% in Brittany itself.

Regions et Peuples Solidaires made no gains polling less than 0.3%, but in contrast Francois Alfonsi polled very well in Corsica at 21.5%. Partit Occitan polled at 2%. There were no gains for Alsacian Unser Land who stood in coalition with an alternative Green party.

Lista Za Rijeku made no gains. The coalition result was 2.37%, the result in the Rijeka region was 3.3% and below expectations. The turnout was 25%.

Bayernpartei polled strongly winning over 9,000 voters more in Bavaria since the last European election, but it wasn’t to be enough to get a Bavarian representative elected.

In Moravia, Moravané gained 0.43 %, 6,614 votes, and where there was a very low turnout of less than 20%.

In Greece, Rainbow increased its votes from 4,512 (2009) to 5,671 but no seat. DEB, the party of the Turkish minority in Thrace and an EFA applicant party, performed well, gaining 25% (42,533) of the votes in their region, making them the third party in their region. However, it wasn’t enough to break the nationwide threshold needed for a seat.

In the Val d’Aosta ALPE fielded Luca Barbieri on a list with the Democratic Party (PD) but he didn't have a place high enough on the list to get elected, even with the PD gaining 17,557 votes.

Slovakia saw one of the lowest turnouts in Europe with only 13% voting, and possibly affecting the Hungarian MKDSZ party who polled around 0.2%.

Slovenska Skupnost had to fight local and EP elections at the same time. For the EP elections Tanja Peric came 3rd on her list gaining 1,297 votes but not enough for a seat. The President of Slovenska was on the SDS list in Slovenia. It won three seats but not enough to elect the Slovenska candidate.