The election to the European Parliament is decided today, when 20 of the Union’s 27 member states go to the polls.
In Germany, the election campaign has been characterized above all by the economy, the climate and support for Ukraine.
– There has been a high level of tension. In the last few days alone, there have been attacks against an AFD politician and against a left-wing politician, says TV4’s foreign correspondent Jona Källgren, who reports from Berlin.
– People have thrown fireworks at social democrats, and yesterday there were very large demonstrations against right-wing extremism. So the tone is high in Germany and many are probably looking forward to this election campaign being over.
Could be the biggest in the entire parliament
In France, the union’s second most populous country, about one in two eligible voters is expected to go and vote in an election that the nationalist National Assembly looks set to win.
The party – which previously went by the name National Fronten – looks set to get 30 percent of the vote and may even become the largest party in the entire European Parliament.
– But they have to cooperate with other parties in the European Parliament, so how much power they will get in place is a bit difficult to say, says TV4’s reporter Jennifer Paterson, who reports from Paris.
The red-green coalition has the upper hand
One country that has already finished voting is the Netherlands, which holds 31 out of a total of 720 seats in the parliament.
Their election results will not be announced until tonight when all countries have voted, but polling station polls have shown that the immigration-critical Freedom Party has won seven seats in parliament, and the coalition between social democrats and environmentalists eight.
– It has pleased both the right and the left. There has been talk of a right-wing wave, but some interpret them as the social democrats still having the upper hand, says TV4’s broadcast reporter Ritva Rönnberg, who is on the ground in Brussels.
High turnout
Turnout on the whole looks set to be higher than in 2019.
– The EU Parliament has paid approximately one crown per voter to get people to go and vote. Posters have been put up all over the Union and social media has been used and it actually seems to have succeeded. Voter turnout has become higher, says TV4’s Ritva Rönnberg.
TV4 broadcasts a vigil between 9.00 p.m. and 01.00 a.m. Thomas Ritter is the presenter and the experts are Lisa Grenfors and Marcus Oscarsson.