The intention for the late-night release of the results was supposed to be a simultaneous publication of results from across the 27-member bloc, with voting continuing into Sunday night in some countries. But for Latvia, the long wait for something tangible from 20:00 on Saturday to 00:00 on Monday morning tended to create a sense of anticlimax rather than excitement.

At least the intervening hours had allowed turnout to be confirmed as 33.82%, only fractionally up on the 2019 turnout of 33.53%, suggesting intense advertising campaigns to urge participation had little…