The Netherlands is the first member state to have voted yesterday for the 2024 European elections, together with the Czech Republic and Ireland. First weak signs of how the picture will be composed after the counting on Sunday evening, on which the new majority in the Euro-Hemicycle and above all the balance of the new community institutions will depend. What stands out first of all is an abstention rate which should be around 45% and an overall improvement for right-wing parties compared to 2019: all polls show the European right-wing able to obtain a quarter of the 720 available parliamentary seats.
In the Land of Tulips, the left (8) should have one more seat than the right (7) after Wilders’ electoral success last year which placed him at the top of Dutch politics. For the PVV, however, it is an objective success, since it did not obtain any seats in the European elections five years ago, except one after Brexit. “This is a very positive signal and also a signal to the elites in Brussels that things will change,” Wilders commented. And if the final result will only be announced tomorrow evening, it is already possible to outline a general figure today, with the centre-left alliance made up of Greens and Labor losing one seat compared to 2019.
In the Czech Republic they still remember the very low turnout of 2019, with 28.7% so this time Prime Minister Petr Fiala and his Civic Democratic Party will try not to lose ground compared to the centrist ANO movement led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babis who he proposed the anti-left slogan “no to immigration and green madness”. However the Czech vote ends, the center and the right should collect more votes than the left.
In Ireland, for the first time in a vote, many candidates have coalesced on an anti-immigration platform, both as independents and for openly nationalist parties, demonstrating a very sensitive issue even in those latitudes. In fact, around 20% of the population was born outside the country and the numbers of asylum seekers have increased exponentially, as does anti-immigration sentiment.
Sensitivities that have caused support for the left-wing nationalist party Sinn Fein to decline, since in its program it presents pro-immigration positions that contrast with the demands of voters belonging to the Irish working class.
