The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, appears to be nudging people to go and vote, writing on X: “Bad politicians are elected by good citizens who stay home.”
Złych polityków wybierają dobrzy obywatele, którzy zostają w domach.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) June 9, 2024
Lili Bayer
At 6:30am, the halls of a school in central Budapest were quiet.
Seven people sat at a long table as I walked into the room designated for my voting district.
After they checked my name in a booklet with a list of eligible voters, I signed and got five pieces of paper: one ballot paper for the European parliament election and four for local elections, including the mayor of Budapest.
In the European race, all eyes are on Tisza, a new party led by former government insider Péter Magyar.
Magyar has positioned himself as a centrist and is aiming to challenge the ruling Fidesz party’s dominant position in Hungarian politics. “We are building a country where there is no right, no left – only Hungarian,” he declared at a rally in the capital yesterday.
Fidesz, led by Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, enjoys the support of 50% of decided voters, according to a study published Friday by pollster Medián. Magyar’s Tisza party, meanwhile, stood at 27%.
The prime minister, who is the EU’s most Kremlin-friendly leader, has focused his election campaign on what he has described as a “peace” platform.
The ruling party has run an intense campaign claiming – without providing proof – that there is a global conspiracy to force Hungary into a direct war with Russia and that Hungary’s opposition is being directed by the west.
On the ballot paper for mayor of Budapest, one name was crossed out: Alexandra Szentkirályi, the candidate for the ruling Fidesz party, who pulled out of the race on Friday and endorsed another candidate, Dávid Vitézy.
Vitézy is challenging Gergely Karácsony, the incumbent, who is supported by multiple opposition parties.
Along with European parliament elections, Belgium is also holding a general election and regional ballots today.
But it is the national vote – which is expected to see a surge in support for a far-right party that wants to break up the country – that is dominating discourse in Belgium.
Polls suggest that the right will rise in Flanders and the left in primarily French-speaking Wallonia, suggesting a potentially fiendishly complicated coalition negotiation in the weeks and months to come.
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has this dispatch from Brussels:
In the first European election since Britain left the EU, voters are being asked to elect 720 lawmakers to the world’s only directly elected transnational parliament.
This year’s ballot is being closely watched as opinion polls forecast significant gains for far-right and anti-establishment parties, which would have far-reaching consequences for the EU’s policy agenda.
My colleague Jennifer Rankin in Brussels has put together this primer on the elections:
Millions across Europe expected to vote in final day of European parliament elections
Good morning. It’s super Sunday – today 21 countries in Europe go to the polls, including Italy which runs its ballot over two days.
Among the 21 countries voting today are the EU’s other big three economies: Spain, Germany and France.
We’ll be following the action all day and late into the night, with a fairly definitive picture of the parliament expected to emerge around 1am on Monday CET (midnight BST). Predicted results are expected to appear earlier in the evening.
