BRUSSELS — Voters go to the polls to european union election Super Sunday amid concerns that a likely shift to the political right will undermine the world’s largest trading bloc’s ability to make decisions as war rages in Ukraine and anti-immigrant sentiment rises.
Citizens of 20 countries, from the Alpine nation of Austria to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, cast votes elect 720 members of the European Parliament. Seats in the assembly are allocated based on population, from six in Malta or Luxembourg to 96 in Germany.
The official results of the elections, which are held every five years and started in the Netherlands on Thursday, it cannot be published before the closing of the last polling stations in the 27 EU countries: those of Italy at 11:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. GMT). Unofficial estimates will be published from 1615 GMT.
An unofficial exit poll on Thursday suggested that Geert Wilders’ far-right anti-immigrant party should make important profits in the Netherlands, although a coalition of pro-European parties has probably knocked it into second place.
Since the last EU elections in 2019, populist or far-right parties now lead governments in three countries (Hungary, Slovakia and Italy) and are part of the ruling coalition in others, including Sweden, Finland and, soon, the Countries Low. Polls give populists an advantage France, Belgium, Austria and Italy.
The election comes at a testing time for voter confidence in a bloc of some 450 million people. Over the last five years, the EU has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemica economic crisis and a energy crisis fueled by the largest territorial conflict in Europe since World War II.
The polls also mark the beginning of a period of uncertainty for Europeans and their international partners. Beyond disputes to form political groups and establish alliances within parliament, governments will compete to secure high-level EU positions for their national officials.
Chief among them is the presidency of the powerful executive branch, the European Commission, which proposes laws and ensures that they are respected. The Commission also controls the EU budget, manages trade and is Europe’s competition watchdog.
Other notable positions include president of the European Council, who presides over summits of presidents and prime ministers, and EU foreign policy chief, the bloc’s top diplomat.
EU lawmakers have a say in legislation ranging from financial rules to climate or agricultural policy. They also approve the EU budget, which in addition to financing the bloc’s political priorities, finances things like infrastructure projects, agricultural subsidies or aid delivered to Ukraine.
But despite their important role, political campaigns often focus on issues of individual country concern rather than broader European interests. Voters routinely use their votes to protest the policies of their national governments.
Polls suggest that traditional and pro-European parties will retain their majority in parliament, but that the far right, including parties led by politicians such as Wilders or France’s Marine Le Pen, will eat up their share of seats.
The largest political group – the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) – has already moved away from the middle ground, campaigning on traditional far-right issues such as more security, stricter immigration laws and a focus on business over profits. social welfare concerns.
Much may depend on whether the brothers from italy – the ruling party of far-right populist Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, which has neo-fascist roots – remains in the harder-line European Conservatives and Reformists, or becomes part of a new far-right group that could be created following the elections. Meloni also has the option of working with the PPE.
The second largest group, the center-left Socialists and Democrats, and the Greens refuse to align with the ECR. A more dire scenario for pro-European parties would be if the ECR joined forces with Le Pen’s Identity and Democracy to consolidate far-right influence.
Questions remain over which group Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s staunchly nationalist and anti-immigrant Fidesz party might join. He was previously part of the EPP, but was forced out in 2021 due to conflicts over their interests and values.
The EPP has campaigned for Ursula von der Leyen to be given a second term as commission president, but there is no guarantee she will be returned even if they win. National leaders will decide who will be nominated, although parliament must approve any candidate.
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