European Parliament elections: Right-wing forces make gains on final day as millions take to the polls

Europeans in 20 countries will head to the polls on the biggest and final voting day of the European Parliament elections.

The EU vote is particularly significant in a pivotal election year and on a continent seeing increasing political polarization and nationalism.

The run-up to the vote was marked by violence, but an incident in which Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen suffered minor whiplash and was forced to stop campaigning was not seen as politically motivated.

Europe’s main centre-right group is expected to come out on top across the EU when the first forecasts are released later on Sunday, but the three far-right parties are all aiming to win the most seats at home.

France’s National Rally, Italy’s Italian Brothers party and Austria’s Freedom Party are leading the polls, as is Belgium’s separatist, anti-immigration party, Vlaams Verandah.

The majority of EU member states will vote on Sunday, although some EU countries have already begun voting on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The European Parliament is the direct link between Europeans and the EU institutions.

In Germany and Belgium, 16- and 17-year-olds will be able to vote for the first time, increasing youth voting numbers in Europe. Young people in Austria and Malta have been able to vote from the age of 16 for some time now, and in Greece, the age is 17.

In Germany alone, an estimated 1.4 million 16- and 17-year-olds are among the roughly 5 million people voting for the first time, and they could influence the outcome of the election.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party claims to have been particularly successful in garnering support from young men through campaigns on social media platforms such as TikTok.

Belgian Young people in Belgium vote in federal, local and European elections. Voting is compulsory in Belgium, but there was little enthusiasm among young people ahead of the vote in Aalst, Flanders.

Vlaams Veran has won with the party before, but so far no other party is willing to work with it. A young woman named Simona said young people are especially enthusiastic about the party’s anti-immigration stance: “They like its policies towards people coming from abroad.”

Many of the town’s young voters the BBC spoke to said they had not yet decided whether to vote at a European or national level.

Dutch anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders visited Aalst on the eve of the vote in a bid to boost Vlaams-Veran’s chances of victory.

Dutch Voters will head to the polls on Thursday, with exit polls already suggesting his party is narrowly behind the Left-Green coalition. Results won’t be known until Sunday evening.

The priorities of European voters have shifted dramatically since they last voted in 2019, with Russia’s war in Ukraine and the cost of living front and center in people’s minds, while immigration, health and the economy are also key. Five years ago, British voters took part in the last election before leaving the EU.

“We want a Europe that can defend itself,” said Ursula von der Leyen, who has led the European Commission for the past five years and is campaigning for another term in the election, which will also play a major role in determining who runs the EU’s executive branch.

However, voters were as swayed by domestic issues as by European politics, as evidenced by exit polls in the Netherlands, which suggested that domestic and European politics were equally important to 48% of voters.