Will fans of the EU establishment be quite so keen on unaccountable, centralised institutions when their opponents start appointing commissioners?
Merkel is threatened. Macron is outraged. Brussels is paralysed. And all three trends are taken by their opponents as signs that they are winning.
The vote split along geographic and political grounds; it is hard to see how any proper government can be formed between competing brands of populism.
Storming results for the Five Star Movement and the League pose big challenges to the established structure of Italian politics, to the EU, and to the left more generally.
Traditionally, a technocratic government would now steer the country through choppy waters. But this time that could lead to more instability.