Populists yesterday were hoping to cause upsets across the EU as the European Parliament elections got under way in polls that could challenge the Brussels consensus.
Britain and the Netherlands began four days of voting across the continent in a contest in which rising populist forces are hoping to make significant gains, threatening closer EU integration.
Polls early yesterday opened within half an hour of each other in the two nations, with the first results not announced until late on Sunday once voting in all 28 EU members has been completed.
Photo: Reuters
More than 400 million voters across the bloc are eligible to elect 751 lawmakers — with Britain unexpectedly included.
Having voted to leave the EU in a seismic referendum in 2016, Britain was originally meant to depart on March 29 and therefore not take part in the elections, but its lawmakers have not been able to agree on a divorce deal and Britain now finds itself in the absurd situation of electing lawmakers to an institution it is planning to leave.
The Brexit Party, formed only this year by euroskeptic Nigel Farage, is leading the latest British opinion polls by a solid margin.
“We are attempting a peaceful political revolution in this country,” Farage told the party’s final rally on Tuesday. “The establishment: they’re not frightened — they’re absolutely terrified.”
In the Netherlands, flamboyant populist Thierry Baudet, a classics-quoting climate skeptic, is on course to beat Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals.
Once best known for naked Instagram selfies and controversial comments about women, Baudet, 36, stunned Europe in March when his Forum for Democracy became the biggest party in the Dutch Senate.
Around the continent, national leaders are scrambling to mobilize their supporters to resist the populist surge.
These are the ninth European Parliament elections since they began in 1979 and voter turnout has dropped each time, hitting 43 percent in 2014.
European governments fear a good showing for euroskeptics would disrupt Brussels decisionmaking.
Opinion polls predict a significant advance for nationalist and populist forces opposed to closer EU integration, threatening mainstream reform efforts.
Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini anti-immigrant League and Marine Le Pen of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) want their Europe of Nations and Freedom to become the third-largest group in Brussels.
Le Pen wants to strike a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron’s faltering rule by overtaking his Republic on the Move. Polls give RN a slight edge.
“Everything has changed,” Le Pen said. “Before we were on our own on the European scene ... we didn’t have any allies, but in the space of a few months, a whole range of political forces have risen up in spectacular fashion.”
Meanwhile in Britain, the rise of Farage is adding to the pressure for British Prime Minister Theresa May to announce her resignation in the days to come over her failure to deliver Brexit.
The British leader’s woes on Wednesday were made worse when her representative in parliament, Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom, quit, putting May’s government under further strain.
However, the strong showing by euroskeptics is not expected to sweep the whole bloc, with voters from Spain to Ireland and the former Soviet Baltic states showing solid backing for the EU.
The latest Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Parliament found 61 percent of respondents calling their nation’s EU membership a good thing — the highest level since the early 1990s.
The polls open today in the Czech Republic and Ireland, and tomorrow in Latvia, Malta and Slovakia, but most nations are voting on Sunday, with the results expected overnight into Monday.
Nine different projections this month predict that the European People’s Party (EPP), the main center-right bloc in the assembly, would come out with the most seats ahead of the main center-left Party of European Socialists (PES) bloc and then the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker is stepping down after five years as European Commission president.
EPP leader Manfred Weber is their candidate to replace him, while the PES is putting up former Dutch minister of foreign affairs Frans Timmermans.
The hunt will also be on for someone to replace former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk as European Council president.
Other prime jobs up for grabs are those held by a trio of Italians: High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and European Parliament President Antonio Tajani.
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