European elections 2024: This is what parliament will look like as the far right gains strength

Elections to renew the composition of the European Parliament appear this Sunday The remarkable progress of the extreme rightParticularly in France and Germany, where, as a first approximation, this tendency is greater among parties in power.

Millions of Europeans from Portugal to Lithuania head to the polls this Sunday to elect their representatives to the European Parliament.

The 27 EU member states elect 720 seats in the European Parliament (15 more than the current 705) and more than 370 million people are called to the polls. Each country distributes a proportional share of seats based on its population. Germany (96), France (81), Italy (76) and Spain (61) are the countries that contribute the most European MPs, while Malta (6) or Luxembourg (6) contribute the least.

The election of MEPs opens a new cycle in the blocand appoint new legislators Who will preside over the European Commission?The executive branch of the European Union.

In France, the exit polls revealed this The far-right National Agglutination Party won more than 30% of the votenearly twice as much as the liberal coalition launched by Pres. Emmanuel Macon.

French far-right candidates Jordan BerdellaShortly after the Elysée announced the president’s presence on Sunday night, the 28-year-old called on Macron to hold early legislative elections.

In Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, exit polls indicated that the head of the government’s Social Democratic party, Olaf Scholzachieved the worst result in their history and slipped to third placeBehind the right and the extreme right.

According to surveys conducted for public television, The conservative coalition (CDU-CSU) will get 29.5% to 30% of the vote. The far-right AfD party is in second place with about 16%, and Scholz’s SPD party is third with 14%.

Germany is the country that will elect the largest number of euro legislators, with 96, followed by France (81), Italy (76) and Spain (61). Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus each choose 6.

In Austria, exit polls put the far-right FPO party ahead with about 27% of the vote.

According to exit polls in Greece, the Prime Minister’s Conservative Party is leading Kyriakos Mitsotakis The results put the left-wing movement Syriza and the socialist party PASOK ahead.

The centre-left coalition and Greens defeated the far-right PVV party by a narrow margin in Thursday’s election in the Netherlands.

EU-wide estimates suggest this The European People’s Party (EPP, right) bloc will remain the strongest in the European ChamberNext is the Socialists and Democrats (S&D, Social Democrats) group.

Whereas, The Renew Europe bloc (Renew, centrists and liberals) should remain the third most importantHowever, the pressure eased as the right and extreme right advanced.

This is what the surveys indicate Far-right parties could win up to a quarter of seatsTo the point of threatening the Greens benches.

The far-right political family is divided into two factions, but a clear show of strength would establish them as indispensable interlocutors in the decision-making process.

On one side is the Conservative and Reformist (ECR) bloc and on the other is Identity and Democracy (ID), who are divided over their position on the EU.

The rightmost part shows its muscles

The current President of the Commission and candidate for a new five-year term, German Ursula von del LeyenThose affiliated with the EPP voted on Sunday morning in the town of Bergedorf in Lower Saxony.

Von der Leyen opened the door to specific alliances with the Italian prime minister’s far-right group, Giorgia Meloni.

In Spain, voters’ support for the EU remains high – 67% are in favour, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey – perhaps because they link joining the bloc to the country’s modernisation after the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975).

In just over a year, Spain has had municipal, regional, national and now European elections, and between the Socialists and the President of the Government, each one has a taste of revenge for the last election. Pedro Sanchezand led by conservatives from the Popular Party (PP). Alberto Nunez Feijoo.

“It is important that we decide with our vote whether we want a Europe that moves forward or a Europe that goes back. And I hope it will be the first rather than the second,” Spanish government president Pedro Sanchez said after the vote.

As of 16 GMT, voter turnout in Spain was around 38.3%, well below the 49.4% recorded at the same time five years ago.

Another country where the far right needs to achieve concrete results is Hungary“I hope these elections will produce a majority in favour of peace,” the nationalist prime minister declared. Viktor OrbanAfter the vote in Budapest.

Orban’s party Fidesz has around 50% of voting intentions, and in second place is opposition party Tisza with around 27%.

A voter in neighboring Poland, Andrzej ZmijewskiA 51-year-old doctor assured after voting in Warsaw that his biggest concern is to reinforce “security”, as his country is in close proximity to the war zone between Russia and Ukraine.

Socialists, liberals and greens are ready to support the EPP if it does not succumb to the extreme right

Social democratic, liberal and green groups in the European Parliament show their willingness to unite this Sunday For a pro-European coalition with the European People’s Party (EPP) If it does not make concessions to ultra-conservative groups (conservatives and reformists) and the extreme right (identity and democracy).

The Portuguese Pedro Marques, vice-president of the Social Democratic group in the European Parliament, insisted that the result “clearly” pointed to a pro-European Democratic majority and stressed that his group would be key in ensuring that said majority is regained.

“We can build a pro-European democratic majority in favour of the rule of law, and that is why we will fight in the coming months. It is not just in our hands to try. “We want there to be no ambiguity with regard to the extreme right,” Marques said. Right groups.

Also the Frenchman Valerie Heyer, head of the European Liberals list, claimed that her political family would have the necessary strength to be able to maintain a pro-European majority in the European Parliament, despite the fact that the first polls showed that they would lose a fifth of their representatives.

(With information from AFP and EFE)