On the picture: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) casts her ballot next to her husband Heiko von der Leyen in Burgdorf, Germany, 09 June 2024. The European Parliament elections take place across EU member states from 06 to 09 June 2024, with the European elections in Germany being held on 09 June. EPA/CLEMENS BILAN
Voters throughout Europe vote Sunday in the last -- and most important -- day of EU parliament elections, with far-right parties likely to gain ground at a critical juncture for the group, reports AFP.
Polling booths opened in 21 member nations, including heavyweights France and Germany, for the vote that will influence the European Union's course for the next five years.
"These elections are critical because the European Parliament must begin to play its proper role," Kostas Karagiannis told AFP as he left a voting site in Athens.
The vote comes as the continent faces Russia's conflict in Ukraine, global trade and industrial tensions fueled by US-China competition, a climate emergency, and a West that may have to adjust to a new Donald Trump administration in the coming months.
More than 360 million people were eligible to vote across the EU's 27 states in the elections that began on Thursday, but just a quarter are anticipated to do so.
The conclusion will determine the composition of the EU's next parliament, which helps select who controls the powerful European Commission, with German conservative Ursula von der Leyen seeking a second term in office.
While centrist mainstream parties are expected to keep the majority of the 720 seats in the upcoming European Parliament, surveys show that they will be undercut by a stronger extreme right, which is driving the bloc towards ultra-conservatism.
Preliminary results are anticipated on Sunday evening.
Many European voters, who are burdened by high living costs and dread immigration as the root of societal problems, are increasingly convinced by populist rhetoric.
Ferenc Hamori, 54, a Hungarian voter, said he wanted to see the EU headed more by politicians like his country's right-wing prime minister Viktor Orban, despite the fact that he anticipated him to be "outnumbered in Brussels".
The danger posed by Moscow was a key motivator in neighbouring nations.
"I would like to see greater security," doctor Andrzej Zmiejewski, 51, said after voting in Poland's capital, Warsaw.
France will serve as a key battlefield for rival ideologies in the EU.
With voting intentions at 30%, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) is expected to easily defeat President Emmanuel Macron's liberal Renaissance party, which polls at 14-16%.
with Lyon, France, 83-year-old Albert Coulaudon said Macron was "mixed up" with too many foreign matters, including the conflict in Ukraine.
"That scares me," he told AFP.
In Germany, Europe's largest economy, the election might also be a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose centre-left SPD is behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The centre-right Christian Democrats are leading the polls, with 30% of the vote -- but at 14%, the AfD is neck-and-neck or ahead of all three parties in the current coalition: SPD, Greens, and liberal FDP.
Le Pen, who has worked to rid the RN of its historical image for anti-Semitism and racism, has made approaches to Giorgia Meloni, Italy's far-right prime minister, about collaborating.
Meloni, who is strongly opposed to illegal asylum seekers entering Europe, has taken a pro-EU stance and has paid little public attention to Le Pen's offer.
Meloni, unlike Le Pen, supports the EU's decision to provide military and financial support to Ukraine and promotes its aspiration to join the union in the future.
Meloni is also vital to von der Leyen's ambition for a second term as European Commission chairman, which will be determined by EU leaders but must also have majority support in the new European Parliament.
Von der Leyen has indicated that her European People's Party (EPP), which is expected to come in first place in the EU parliament but lacks a majority, may collaborate with Meloni's far-right parliamentarians.
Mainstream leftist parties are concerned that this might lead to a significant rightward tilt, with stricter immigration controls and a weakening of climate measures.
It might also move the extreme right closer to the mainstream, as it has done in Italy and the Netherlands, where they control governing coalitions.
- 'Heads in the sand' - Populism has been criticised, and former government official Peter Magyar has challenged Orban in Hungary.
"I think the public sentiment has changed; people who have been burying their heads in the sand are now standing up and coming forward," remarked Budapest voter Dorottya Wolf.
According to Politico polling, the centre-right EPP will gain 173 legislative seats, followed by the centre-left Socialists and Democrats with 143 and the centrist Renew Europe with 75.
The major far-right coalition, the European Conservatives and Reformists, which includes Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, was expected to gain 76 seats.
The tiny Identity and Democracy grouping, which comprises Le Pen's RN, was anticipated to get 67 votes.|BGNES
