On Brexit, the EU isn't strong enough to be weak right now

"Populists won't take over the new parliament, just smaller parties across the political spectrum will do better," Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think-tank told me. "But the European elections will create space for a populist movement to create pressure and gain more influence within the EU."

And negotiations over the EU's long-term budgets, as Gostyńska-Jakubowska explained, "can cause serious rows between the member states that are net contributors and those that are net recipients." The last thing the EU wants, after two years of unity on Brexit, is for cracks to appear in the final hours.