Millions vote on super Sunday – DW – 06/09/2024

An increase in political violence in Europe may be driven by the many elections taking place this year, Kimberly McArthur from the Berlin-based nonprofit Apolitical Foundation told DW.

In an interview, she said the uptick in violence narrows the diversity of voices in the political system and democracies. Instances of  political violence in Germany have doubled in the last five years, affecting politicians across the political spectrum, she added.

“You have this danger of democratic silencing, essentially where politicians and campaigners do not wish to host public consultations or are not interacting as much with citizens because of fear of physical violence, or we might have politicians change how they vote in parliament because of fear of reprisals,” McArthur said.

The fact that several elections are taking place in Europe this year may be driving political violence, she added: “It being a super election year and politics and politicians are essentially much more in the limelight in the public discourse in the media and social media as well.”

Increasing polarization also doesn’t help, she said. “This is where people see those with a different political attitude as the enemy or as simply a bad person, someone that needs to be taken out of the public realm,” McArthur told DW.

Social media is amplifying these problems, and the impact goes beyond the people working in politics, she said.

“This violence sends a very stark message to people considering going into politics, especially if you are a woman or a person from another group that is unrepresented in political power.”

The general secretary of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD), Kevin Kühnert, said his party was bracing for “a very bitter result” in the European parliamentary elections.

Exit polls suggest the party is on track to finish in third place with 14% of the vote — behind the conservative opposition CDU/CSU bloc and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

“This is a tough defeat for us today,” Kühnert told public broadcaster ARD.

If confirmed, the result would mark the party’s worst performance in a democratic German nationwide election.

Kühnert said the SPD needed to come to terms with the result and review any mistakes.

DW correspondent in Rome Bernd Riegert reports that the main question in Italy this EU election concerns the performance of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“Her slogan is just ‘Vote for Giorgia,’ so voters think this is a referendum on the performance of the right-wing government that has been in office for 18 months and has been quite successful and stable,” said Riegert.

Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy is expected to put on a strong showing in the EU vote. And Meloni is running as the preferential candidate for her party, even though she has no intention of taking a European parliamentary seat.

Bernd added that Meloni wants to know from her constituency if they like what she is doing. “So far it seems this is the case because she will win the biggest chunk of votes in this election,” he said.

He also noted that her decision to take a more moderate course compared to other right-wing parties in Italy seems to be attracting voters.

Polling stations in Italy are due to close at 11 p.m. local time (2100 UTC/GMT). 

Germany’s opposition conservative alliance is likely to win the national vote for the European Parliament election, an exit poll published shortly after voting stations closed Sunday predicted.

The center-right CDU/CSU bloc is projected to receive some 30.5% of the vote.

The far-right Alternative for Germany Party  (AfD) is forecast to come second, with 16.5% support — a 5.5% increase on 2019.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s Social Democrats (SPD) are set to come in at around 14%, the exit poll from Infratest Dimap showed.

The projection shows a nearly 2% loss for the SPD since the 2019 election, with the CDU/CSU bloc picking up 1% support.

The prospects are not much better for Scholz’s two other coalition partners.

At around 12% in the exit polls, the Greens are nearly 9 percentage points below the impressive 20.5% they achieved in 2019.

The liberal Free Democrats (FDP), meanwhile, are projected to garner only 5%, down slightly from the last election.

The populist leftist BSW party started last year by former Socialist party lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht is expected to win about 5.5% support, according to the exit poll.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) is leading in the country’s election for the European Parliament, projections showed Sunday evening.

The forecast puts the FPÖ on 27% support, the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) on 23.5% and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) on 23%.

The projection shows support for the FPÖ up nearly 10 percentage points since the last European elections in 2019. Support for the ÖVP, which governs Austria, is down 11.1% compared to 2019.

During the election campaign, theFPÖ often emphasized its skepticism towards the EU under the slogan “Stop the EU madness” and portrayed the EU as a warmongering force in the Ukraine conflict. 

The forecast suggests that the environmentally friendly Greens will win 10.5% support, while the liberal NEOS could get around 10.5%.

The forecast is based on surveys of 3,600 people carried out in the past week for national broadcaster ORF, Puls 24 TV and news agency APA.

The poll has a margin of error of 2.5% percentage points.

Austria has 20 of the future 720 seats in the European Parliament.

Preliminary results from across the EU are expected later Sunday evening.

One in three eligible German voters had exercised their right to vote in the EU elections by the early afternoon, suggesting greater interest in the polls than five years ago. 

By 2 p.m. local time (1200 GMT/UTC), 32.3% had cast their ballots, the Federal Returning Officer announced. The provisional turnout figure was determined on the basis of the turnout at selected polling stations and excluded postal votes. 

In 2019, the Federal Returning Officer reported a voter turnout of 29.4% at 2 p.m. The overall voter turnout for the 2019 European elections was 61.4%. 

Polling stations in Germany are open until 6 p.m. local time.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has cast his ballot for the European Parliament elections in Potsdam.

According to DPA photographers, Scholz came with his wife Britta Ernst and posed standing in line at the polling station in the east German city, where the chancellor also has his constituency. 

In total, 65 million citizens in Germany are eligible to vote in the EU-wide elections.

Polling stations are open until 6 p.m. local time (1600 UTC/GMT).

Ninety-six of the European Parliament’s 720 seats will go to representatives from Germany, where around 1,400 candidates from 35 parties are running.

Scholz’s center-left coalition is expected to lose ground, while the opposition conservative CDU/CSU bloc is predicted to come out on top. 

In addition to the European Parliament elections, voters in several German states are going to the polls on Sunday to elect local officials. 

In Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, voters are deciding on representative bodies such as county councils, city councils or district assemblies. 

In the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, the vote is seen as a test of public opinion ahead of state elections in September, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to do well. 

In Thuringia, where local elections were held two weeks ago, many citizens are to vote in a runoff to determine their future district administrator or mayor. In nine cases, AfD candidates are also on the ballot. 

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen cast her vote in the European Parliament elections on Sunday morning at a polling station in Burgdorf, near her home in the German state of Lower Saxony.

Afterward, she took to social media to once again encourage people to participate in the polls.

“Let’s show the power of our democracy,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Let’s make Europe, our common home, stronger than ever.”

Von der Leyen is hoping to keep the EU’s top job for a second term as president of the European Commission. She is the center-right European People’s Party’s leading candidate for the position.

DW correspondent Jack Parrock reports from Warsaw that the EU elections are essentially a race between the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s liberal Civic Platform, which got into power last year.

“This European election is seen as sort of a test a barometer on how well Donald Tusk and his government are doing,” Parrock said.

He added that Tusk is painting the elections as a vote either “for us” or, on the other side, for “letting Russian influence into Polish politics.”

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, meanwhile, claims that Tusk is puppet of Brussels.

For Poland, 53 seats out of 720 are up for grabs in the European Parliament.

Parrock reported that the polls are showing an even race between PiS and Civic Platform, with both at around 30% support.

“It is purely about those two sides, rather than the issues that are on voters’ minds, like security,” he said. “There are huge issues on the border with Belarus, there has been a surge in migrants trying to cross into Poland.” 

Warsaw has accused Russia and Belarus of sending large numbers of migrants to the Polish border in an effort to create instability. 

Long-serving Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to extend his party’s nearly 15-year streak of election victories, but faces one of the biggest challenges of his career from a former ally. 

Peter Magyar, a 43-year-old lawyer once married to Hungary’s former justice minister and Orban ally Judit Varga, has risen to prominence since February by publicly accusing Orban’s government of corruption and mismanagement.

Magyar’s party, Respect and Freedom (TISZA), has presented itself as a more centrist alternative to Orban’s brand of illiberal populism and is likely to win several seats in the EU legislature. 

It has also capitalized on the economic crisis and dissatisfaction with Hungary’s traditional opposition parties to siphon off much of their support. 

Outside his polling station, Orban framed the vote as a “pro-peace or pro-war” choice. During the campaign, he framed the election as an existential struggle between war and peace, telling voters that voting for his opposition would drag Hungary directly into the war in neighboring Ukraine.

In Austria, a number of polling stations for the European Union elections have either been made inaccessible or have been destroyed by severe storms. 

In Styria, for example, polling stations in Deutschfeistritz, north of Graz, and several in the Hartberg-Fürstenfeld district were affected, authorities told the APA news agency on Sunday morning. 

Severe storms hit Styria in particular on Saturday. Houses and cars were damaged by flooding.  

However, the  mayors had reacted very quickly and relocated the polling stations. Signs had been put up in the municipalities indicating where the new polling stations were located, and the local leaders had also largely announced the changes via social media. According to the state, the election was not expected to be affected. 

The ruling conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) is facing significant losses in the election. The right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) is expected to be the clear winner, according to previous polls.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, is expected to increase its number of seats in the European Parliament from seven in the last election, potentially expanding its influence in the EU. 

The Brothers of Italy are expected to win around a quarter of the vote, according to polling data, in line with their performance in the 2022 national election but well ahead of the last European Parliament vote in 2019. 

The center-left Democratic Party is polling second, followed by the opposition 5-Star Movement.

In Italy, the vote is not expected to destabilize the government, although Meloni’s advantage will come at the expense of her coalition partners, the populist, anti-migrant right-wing Lega led by Matteo Salvini and the center-right Forza Italia led by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. 

Meloni is important to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term, which will be decided by EU leaders but will also need majority approval in the new European Parliament.

Von der Leyen, a conservative former German defense minister, has opened the door for her European People’s Party (EPP) to work with Meloni’s far-right lawmakers.

In the future EU Parliament, 96 out of 720 MEPs (the largest share) will come from Germany, where about 65 million people are eligible to vote.

For the first time, voters aged 16 and 17 will be able to participate in the European elections in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, this concerns about 1.4 million people.

The three parties in center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular governing coalition, the Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats, risk being punished by voters because of ongoing bickering and a weak economy. 

The main center-right opposition, the Christian Democratic Union/ Christian Social Union, hopes to capitalize and maintain its position as Germany’s strongest party in Brussels ahead of national elections expected next fall. 

But much attention will be paid to the performance of the far-right Alternative for Germany, which enjoyed strong support last year but has suffered a series of setbacks in the run-up to the European elections. 

The party can expect to improve its performance in 2019, but perhaps not as much as it hopes.

France’s far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, and her National Rally party are expected to be the big winners in the European Parliament elections.

Pollsters expect the National Rally to win most of France’s 81 seats, far ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s moderate, pro-business party. 

Many French voters will use the EU elections to express their dissatisfaction with Macron’s management of the economy, agricultural regulations or security. 

The National Rally’s top candidate for the European Parliament, Jordan Bardella, promises to restrict the free movement of migrants within the EU’s open borders. He also wants to roll back EU climate regulations. 

On the left, polls show a surprising resurgence of the Socialist Party behind frontrunner Raphael Glucksmann, who promises more ambitious climate policies and protections for European businesses and workers.