Your time is up, Italy’s hard-right leader tells EU center parties as she votes in European election

ROME — Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joined voters from Italy and half a dozen European Union countries in casting their ballots during the penultimate day of European Union parliamentary elections on Saturday. The bloc’s leading far-right politician threw down the gauntlet to traditional centrist parties, telling them their time was up to govern the EU as they wanted.

populist and extreme right parties They were looking to make progress across the 27-member bloc following Geert Wilders’ strong performance in the Netherlands on Thursday.

And Meloni, the leading far-right politician governing a key founding nation of the bloc, left no doubt about what was at stake when she went to vote in her suburban Rome neighborhood on Saturday afternoon.

“This vote will decide our next five years,” he said, echoing his campaign theme that the time had come to strip powers from national capitals and restrict the reach of EU institutions that have been dominated by Christian Democrats. socialist and pro-business. Liberal politicians.

As the bloc’s third most populous nation, Italy wields considerable influence. It will send 76 lawmakers to the 720-seat parliament, which has expanded its powers in recent years. Only Germany and France, which vote on Sunday, have more seats.

At the same time, the electoral campaign was marked by violence.

In Slovakia, the elections were overshadowed by an attempt to murder populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the nation of 5.4 million people and reverberating across Europe. Analysts say the attack could increase the chances of the prime minister’s leftist Smer (Direction) party, the main partner in the ruling coalition, winning the vote.

And in Denmark it was Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen who canceled her last day of campaigning across the country after suffering whiplash while she was attacked in Copenhagen on Friday, the latest in a series of incidents in recent weeks, in which the attempted murder of Fico stood out.

Fico, who took office last fall after campaigning on a pro-Russian, anti-American platform, has been recovering from multiple wounds after being shot in the abdomen while greeting supporters in the town of Handlova.

He recovered in time to address the nation in a pre-recorded video, his first public statement since the attack, just hours before the start of the pre-election silence period on Wednesday. He attacked the European Union, suggesting that he was a victim because of his views differing markedly from those of the EU mainstream.

Fico is strongly opposed to supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion. He ended Slovakia’s military aid to Ukraine after his coalition government was sworn in on October 25. He also opposes EU sanctions on Russia and wants to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.

Fico claimed that the mainstream media, non-governmental organizations and the liberal opposition were also guilty of the assassination attempt, an accusation repeated by politicians in his governing coalition.

Soňa Szomolányi, a professor of political science at Comenius University in Bratislava, said Fico’s message “only confirms that the ruling coalition has been using the assassination (attempt) in a timely and apparently effective manner,” she said.

The entire EU campaign has been framed in light of center and left forces seeking to contain a rise of the far right on Sunday and in a fight between those seeking closer EU unity with greater powers against those like Fico, the Hungarian prime minister. Viktor Orbán and Meloni, who intend to swing the pendulum towards the Member States themselves.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who hopes to use Sunday’s results as a launching pad for a second term at the head of the EU, has been especially highlighting respect for the rule of law as a prerequisite par excellence for those who seek power.

Meloni is expected to be the big winner in Italy, reflecting the growth of her far-right Brothers of Italy, mainly at the expense of her coalition partners, the populist, anti-immigrant League and the center-right Forza Italia. The result could expand Meloni’s influence in the EU, as von der Leyen has not ruled out a coalition with her group.

Taking advantage of her popularity, Meloni is running as a preferred candidate, although she has no intention of taking a seat in the European Parliament.

Voters in Latvia, Malta and the Czech Republic also voted on Saturday. The final results will not be published until Sunday evening, once all countries have voted. The main voting day is Sunday, and citizens of 20 European countries, including Germany, France and Poland, will cast their votes for the 720-seat European Parliament.

Seats are allocated based on population, from six in Malta or Luxembourg to 96 in Germany. In Malta, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, von der Leyen’s ally in the center-right Christian Democrat European People’s Party, proudly proclaimed “Duty Done” and urged EU citizens to go vote, “or else will decide for you.” In 2019, barely half of eligible votes went to the polls, while predictions show turnout could exceed 70% this year.

In Slovakia, Fico’s Smer party is in a tight race against the main opposition party, Progressive Slovakia, a pro-Western liberal party.

The Fico government has made efforts to reform public broadcasting – a move that critics say would give the government full control of public television and radio.

That, together with his plans to modify the penal code eliminating a special anti-corruption prosecutor, has led opponents to fear it will lead Slovakia down a more autocratic path, following the lead of neighboring Hungary under populist rule. Orbán.

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Associated Press journalists Karel Janicel reported from Prague and Raf Casert from Brussels. Colleen Barry of Milan contributed reporting.