Leaders from countries where the right-wing Euroskeptics made gains in the European Parliament elections are calling on the bloc to pay attention to the drubbing that traditional parties took over the weekend. 

The leaders made their comments upon arriving in Brussels for EU summit.  British Prime Minister David Cameron repeated his complaint that the European Union is “too big, too bossy, too interfering”. 

The anti-Europe UK Independence Party (UKIP) topped the polls in his country, while in France the extreme-right National Front – which Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble described as “fascist” – overwhelmed all its rivals.  French President Francois Hollande said he would use the summit to “reaffirm that the priority is growth, jobs and investment”.

But despite the news coverage, the pro-EU bloc has a comfortable majority.  The center-right European People’s Party has just over 28 percent of the seats.  The Socialist alliance earned 25.3 percent of the vote, the Liberals got 9 percent, and the Greens earned 7 percent.  That’s more than enough to get things done.

Euroskepticism was higher in the north.  But in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece – all countries that tasted the bitterness of “austerity” – plus Slovakia and Romania, the vote went to the Left.