As voters across the continent head to the polls for the European elections, the first exit poll to emerge is being deemed a precursor to a much-anticipated, bloc-wide result: a sharp right turn.
In the Netherlands, the first EU country to vote for the next European Parliament, exit polls indicate sweeping gains for Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders‘s party.
While Dutch left-wing Labour and Green parties appear to maintain a slight lead, with a combined total of eight out of 31 available seats in the European Parliament, Wilders’ anti-immigration Freedom Party was closely trailing them with seven seats — a major turnaround from the zero seats it secured in 2019.
EU elections are unfolding over four days, with results due late Sunday. Around 400 million people across the bloc’s 27 member states are eligible to vote for the next 720 members of European Parliament (MEPs).
A much-cited report by the European Council on Foreign Relations predicts that the combined populist right will win roughly a quarter of the total number of seats in the new parliament.
