Dutch voters yesterday started a four-day election marathon across the 27 nations of the EU, providing an early litmus test of how far-right the next EU parliament might shift.
Crisp sunny weather greeted early-morning voters at the Town Hall in The Hague, some of whom showed up before polling opened, snapping selfies before casting their ballot.
“I want the EU to change. I don’t like the way it’s going,” Simone Nieuwenhuys said after giving her vote to the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Normally I wouldn’t vote PVV, but I want an extra voice that puts on the brakes,” said the 48-year-old government finance employee, naming asylum and immigration policy as the key issues for her.
The EU’s 370 million voters are called to the polls at a time of deep geopolitical uncertainty for the bloc, two-and-a-half years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The bulk of countries including powerhouses France and Germany are to vote on Sunday, but the opening contest in the Netherlands would offer a glimpse of the strength of the far-right — whose predicted surge is the election’s top issue.
Photo: AFP
Wilders’ PVV, the surprise winner of national elections in November last year, is projected to top the EU polls. Though it dropped its pledge of a “Nexit” referendum on leaving the bloc, the PVV’s manifesto remains fiercely euroskeptic.
Claudia Balhuizen, who was first in line to vote at her polling station in The Hague, called his rise a “wake-up” call.
Wilders “is getting a lot more attractive for a lot of people and I can understand that,” said the 42-year-old engineer, who named climate as a crucial issue for her because “we are messing up the planet.”
She saw the European elections as a way to “understand each other better.”
“We have to take into account different cultures, different world views,” Balhuizen said.
The Netherlands is just one of a long list of countries where nationalist, far-right and other euroskeptic forces are expected to come out on top in the EU vote. Polls suggest the hard-right could grab about one-quarter of the new parliament’s 720 seats — significant enough to sway EU policy.
The results could also impact Brussels’ approach to climate change, relations with the US and China, support for Ukraine, EU enlargement and adapting to artificial intelligence innovations.
Outgoing European Parliament President Roberta Metsola Roberta Metsola used social media to urge a big turn out, telling voters: “Choose your future and make your voice heard.”
After the dust settles, the weightings of the emerging political groupings would help EU leaders decide who takes the bloc’s top institutional jobs, including at the European Commission.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a German polyglot, is trying for a second term and seen as the front-runner, though diplomats caution that is not a given.
If tapped by member states, Von der Leyen would still need to lock in support from parliament — or it would be back to square one and potentially months before the EU’s next boss is known.
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