EU vote opens with Dutch far-right putting immigration on ballot

The EU on Thursday kicked off a marathon four-day election with the Dutch far-right urging voters to make a crackdown on immigration the headline issue.

Most of the European Union's 27 nations will hold balloting on Sunday, with some 370 million people called to the polls -- and the early Dutch vote offers a test of the hard-right's predicted surge across the bloc.

"We want less immigration, we want to toughen up asylum rules and policies," Geert Wilders, head of The Netherlands' extreme-right Freedom Party (PVV), said after voting.

His call to shift the European Parliament rightward has resonated with Dutch voters like Simone Nieuwenhuys, a 48-year-old government worker.

"I want the EU to change....  I want an extra voice that puts on the brakes" on immigration, she told AFP after giving her vote to the PVV.

Already part of a Dutch coalition government after a surprise election victory last year, Wilders' party is projected to also win the EU elections in the country, where voting took place under crisp summer skies.

Surveys suggest the far-right could grab a quarter of the incoming EU parliament's 720 seats.

That prospect has rattled the legislature's main groupings, the conservative European People's Party (EPP) and the leftist Socialist and Democrats.

Current European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second term, has opened the door to her EPP working with the far-right to ensure legislation is passed.

Von der Leyen, a polyglot former German defence minister, has been courting Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, who heads the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party.

EU leaders, including Meloni, will decide after the elections who should helm the commission. Their choice needs the backing of a simple majority in the European Parliament.

- 'Wake up' call -

The EU recently overhauled immigration policies to toughen its borders and speed up deportations, but far-right parties want an even stricter approach.

While Wilders' message has galvanised some Dutch voters, for others like Claudia Balhuizen, first in line to vote at her polling station in The Hague, it has been a "wake up" call.

He "is getting a lot more attractive for a lot of people and I can understand that," admitted the 42-year-old engineer who argued for more EU unity in the face of climate change.

Another voter, 29-year-old worker Robin Biersma, said "we are faced with many challenges, notably on bolstering our defence and cooperation, our internal market, but also our norms and values".

The EU elections are happening at a time of deep geopolitical uncertainty, with voters viewing the bloc as a haven of stability in an unstable world.

Member countries, which have thrown their support behind Ukraine as it fights off Russia's invasion, are also confronted with increasing US-China rivalry, Mideast turmoil, trade tensions and climate change.

- Far-right alliance? -

The parliamentary election results will indirectly help determine who will run the next European Commission, the bloc's powerful executive body.

Analysts said that while much attention was on the far-right's predicted surge, the more important question was whether the EPP would ally with extreme-right lawmakers.

Nathalie Brack, professor of political science at Brussels' ULB university, told AFP "the idea of cooperating with parts of the radical right has become almost normal" -- especially as they are already in national ruling coalitions in The Netherlands and Italy.

"The real storyline of these EU elections is... the extent to which the centre-right is prepared to normalise some of those parties," agreed another expert, Alberto Alemanno, on the X platform.

The possibility of Donald Trump returning as US president after November elections has also focused European minds -- and given a boost to parties in the EU aligned with Trump's nationalist views.

While The Netherlands is an early test of the far-right's fortunes, scrutiny will soon shift to the EU's bigger economies as they open their polling stations.

Marine Le Pen's National Rally party is predicted to come out on top in France, as is Meloni's party in Italy, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's far-right Fidesz party.

In Germany, the extreme-right AfD is polling second, after the opposition conservatives. In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party looks on track for victory.

Polling data compiled by Politico project von der Leyen's EPP winning 172 seats in the next parliament, followed by the Socialists and Democrats, with 143 seats.

Third place could go to the centrist Renew Group, eyeing 75 seats -- unless it is overtaken by far-right parties mulling the formation of a supergroup, as Le Pen wants.

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