BRUSSELS
\nTens of millions of voters from Vilnius to Madrid were casting ballots Sunday on the final day of elections for the EU\u2019s parliament, with far-right parties eyeing gains at a pivotal time for the bloc.
\nTwenty-one of the bloc\u2019s 27 countries, including heavy hitters France and Germany, were voting on the election\u2019s biggest day to help shape the European Union\u2019s direction over the next five years.
\n\u201cIn the current world situation, where everyone is trying to isolate each other, it\u2019s important to keep standing up for peace and democracy,\u201d said one voter in Berlin, Tanja Reith, 52.
\nThe election comes as the continent is confronted with Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, global trade tensions marked by US-China rivalry, a climate emergency and a West that may soon have to adapt to a new Donald Trump presidency.
\n\u201cRight now we are living in a scenario of uncertainty,\u201d Jaime Bajo, a sports center operator, said as he cast his vote in Madrid.
\n\u201cI can understand that people feel fear and vote with a hard mindset,\u201d said the 40-year-old, who predicted a \u201crise of extremist forces\u201d in Europe.
\nMore than 360 million people were eligible to vote in the four-day election, although turnout in EU polls is historically low.
\nThe bloc\u2019s next parliament will help decide who runs the powerful European Commission, with German conservative Ursula von der Leyen \u2014 who cast her vote in her home country \u2014 vying for a second term.
\nWhile centrist parties are predicted to keep most of the legislature\u2019s 720 seats, polls suggest they will be weakened by a stronger far right pushing the bloc toward ultraconservatism. Preliminary results are expected late Sunday.
\nEuropean voters, hammered by a high cost of living and some fearing immigrants to be the source of social ills, are increasingly persuaded by populist messaging.
\nFrance will be the EU\u2019s high-profile battleground for competing ideologies.
\nWith voting intentions above 30 percent, Marine Le Pen\u2019s far-right National Rally (RN) is predicted to handily beat President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s liberal Renaissance party, polling around half that.
\nA smiling Le Pen voted in her northern French town of Henin-Beaumont, pausing to wave and accept flowers from supporters but making no comment to media.
\nIn the French city of Lyon, 83-year-old voter Albert Coulaudon said Macron was getting \u201cmixed up\u201d in too many international issues such as the war in Ukraine.
\n\u201cThat scares me,\u201d he told AFP.
\nBut in southern Toulouse, Martine Dorian, 76, said: \u201cIf tomorrow Europe disappears, there will be no France left either.\u201d
\nIn Germany, the election could also deal a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who voted accompanied by his wife and stopped to pose for a picture with a young couple and a baby.
\nLeading the polls in Europe\u2019s biggest economy are the opposition center-right Christian Democrats, with a projected 30 percent of votes.
\nThe far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), on 14 percent, was seen either neck-and-neck or ahead of all three parties in Scholz\u2019s ruling coalition: the SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP.
\nIn Italy, holding its second day of voting, the far-right ruling Brothers of Italy party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was expected to come out on top.
\nMeloni is being courted both by von der Leyen \u2014 who needs her backing for a second mandate \u2014 as well as Le Pen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who are eyeing the formation of a far-right parliament supergroup.
\nUnlike Le Pen, however, Meloni aligns with the EU consensus on maintaining military and financial assistance to Ukraine.
\nIn EU countries closest to Russia, the spectre of Russia\u2019s threat loomed large.
\n\u201cI want security, especially for the Baltic states. And greater support for Ukraine to end the war,\u201d said Ieva Sterlinge, a 34-year-old doctor.
\nLikewise in Romania\u2019s capital Bucharest, psychologist Teodora Maia said she cast her vote \u201con \u201cthe theme of war, which worries us all, and ecology.\u201d
\nIn Paty, a village outside Budapest, Hungarian voter Ferenc Hamori struck a different tone.
\nThe 54-year-old said he wanted more EU leaders like Orban, who maintains close relations with President Vladimir Putin \u2014 even though he expected Orban to remain \u201coutnumbered in Brussels.\u201d
\nOutside his polling station, Orban framed the vote as a \u201cpro-peace or pro-war election.\u201d
\nThe Hungarian leader \u2014 whose government takes on the rotating EU presidency from July \u2014 has stoked fears of the Ukraine war expanding to one between the West and Russia, blaming Brussels and NATO.
\nBut there has been some backlash at home, where Orban faces a challenge from former government insider Peter Magyar, who staged mass rallies in the vote run-up.
\nPolling data compiled by Politico suggest the center-right EPP will win 173 seats in the legislature, with the center-left Socialists and Democrats on 143 and the centrist Renew Europe on 75.
\nThe main far-right grouping, the European Conservatives and Reformists, in which Meloni\u2019s Brothers of Italy party sits, was projected to win 76 seats.
\nThe smaller Identity and Democracy grouping that includes Le Pen\u2019s RN was predicted to get 67.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS Tens of millions of voters from Vilnius to Madrid were casting ballots Sunday on the final day of elections for the EU\u2019s parliament, with far-right parties eyeing gains at a pivotal time for the bloc. Twenty-one of the bloc\u2019s 27 countries, including heavy hitters France and Germany, were voting on the election\u2019s biggest day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-411927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n