The They began voting this Saturday in the legislative elections of the European Union, decisive for the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and to gauge the strength of that trend in the bloc of 27 countries.

Polls predict that the far right could take a quarter of the seats in the European Parliament. The outlook casts a pall of uncertainty over the political balance of the next five years.

The elections started on Thursday in Netherlandsalthough most member states, including Germany, France and Spain, will vote on Sunday.

In Italy, the third economy in the bloc with 76 of the 720 seats in the chamber, the polls predict an advance for Meloni, who ran on his party’s list “Brothers of Italywith which he came to power in 2022 after a campaign largely focused on the fight against immigration.

The polls attribute 27% of the votes to him, with 22 MEPs, against six currently. The elections in this country will last until Sunday.

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A victory for Meloni could make her a key figure for a second term for the current president of the European Commission (executive arm of the EU), Ursula von der Leyen, of the European People’s Party (EPP, right).

The Projections indicate that the EPP bench will continue to be the strongest in Parliamentfollowed by that of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D, social democrats).

The Renew Europe bench (Renew, centrists and liberals) should remain the third most important, although weakened.

The extreme right is divided into two blocks, but if their strengthening is confirmed, they will become unavoidable interlocutors in the decision-making process.

Demonstrations and violence

In Germany, tens of thousands of people They participated in marches to “say no” to the extreme right and urge citizens to go to the polls to defend democracy.

Meanwhile, in Hungary, thousands participated in a rally in Budapest called by Peter Magyar, the main opponent of ultranationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Voting was also held this Saturday in Slovakia, still shaken by the attempted shooting of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

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The leader, one of the few in the EU who supports Russian President Vladimir Putin, cast his vote in the hospital, where he is recovering from the attack that, according to polls, reinforced his status as favorite.

In Denmark, the social democratic prime minister Mette Frederiksen He suffered a physical attack on Friday that caused him a slight cervical sprain.

The suspect in the attack, a 39-year-old man of Polish nationality, was arrested, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that, so far, the “main hypothesis is that there is no political motivation” in fact.



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