European voters elect new parliament as nationalism gets stronger

BRUSSELS – The pivotal elections of the European Union's parliament reached their peak on Sunday as the last 21 countries went to the polls. The results will be announced in the evening during a vote that boils down to a continent – wide battle pitting eurokeptic populists from EU unity.

Right-wing nationalists who want to reduce immigration to Europe and hand over power to national governments should make gains, although the dominant parties are predisposed to retain power in the 751-seat legislature, which is based in Brussels and Europe. Strasbourg.

The Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, party leader of the League, is leading the challenge against the established order. It brings together a group of like-minded parties from all over Europe.

"We must do all that is right to liberate this country, this continent, from the illegal occupation organized by Brussels," Salvini said at a rally in Milan last weekend, at which took part the leaders of 11 nationalist parties.

During his vote in Budapest on Sunday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he hoped the election would bring about a change in leadership of political parties wishing to end migration.

The issue of migration "will reorganize the political spectrum of the European Union," said Orban, who recently met Salvini but has not yet committed to joining the Italian group.

The projections released by the European Parliament last month show that the center-right European People's Party bloc is losing 37 seats out of 217 and the center-left S & D group has gone from 186 seats to 149. In the extreme right, the group Europe of Nations and Freedom should go from 37 to 62 seats.

Proponents of stronger European integration, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, argue that issues such as climate change and immigration control are simply too important for just one country can attack it.

Macron, whose country has been shaken in recent months by the movement of the populist yellow vest, has called the elections "the most important since 1979 because the (European) Union faces an existential risk" on the part of nationalists seeking to divide the bloc.

In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Sunday that he hoped the elections would strengthen the center rather than the far right and left parties.

Austria is one of the countries where voting is becoming increasingly important for national politics. It served as the first test of support before the national elections in September after the collapse of Kurz's ruling coalition a week ago.

Spanish interim Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is currently trying to form a government at home, said during the vote in Madrid that he hoped that the outcome of the vote would lead to the stability of his country.

He added that elections should "decide the future of progress and well-being of our whole country and of Europe".

In Belgium, legislative elections are held in parallel with the European vote, while Lithuanians will vote in the second round of their presidential election.

Sunday promises to be a long day and night for election observers – the last polls close at 11pm. (21H00 GMT) in Italy but the European Parliament plans to start publishing estimates and projections a few hours earlier with the first official projection of the composition of the new parliament at 23:15. (21:15 GMT).

As dust settles after four days of elections, EU leaders will begin to select candidates for high-level posts at EU headquarters in Brussels. The leaders meet Tuesday night for a summit.

The current mandate of the European legislators ends on July 1 and the new Parliament will take its seats in Strasbourg the next day.

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Editors of Associated Press Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, ​​Spain, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

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For more information from the Associated Press on the European Parliament elections, visit https://www.apnews.com/EuropeanParliament

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