World

EPP leads European vote polls as far right grows dramatically with liberals in free fall

May 23, 2024
Ursula von der Leyen
Ursula von der Leyen

BRUSSELS — Conservative forces are set to win the European elections, the latest Euronews Super Poll from the Euronews Polls Centre can exclusively reveal.

Parties from the center-right, ultraconservative and far-right are leading the polls in the main EU countries.

Meanwhile, liberal-democrats are likely to face a painful defeat, as the centre-left settles into fragile stability with moderate losses and timid gains, depending on the country.

The main consequence of the election could be the appointment of a new conservative head of the European Commission. A harsh struggle between already established and new parliamentary groups and the alliances over who will run EU affairs over the next five years is also likely to ensue.

The European People's Party (EPP) is set to confirm its relative majority at the European Parliament.

However, far-right and ultra-conservative forces are also set to win big, the Euronews poll suggests: in France, Identity and Democracy (ID) member Marine Le Pen and her National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN) party. In Italy, European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) PM Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia, FdI) party are on the road to victory.

In the Netherlands, ID member Geert Wilder's Party for Freedom (PVV) leads the polls, and in Romania, Adela Mirza and her Right Alternative (AD) are frontrunners.

Some EPP affiliates have been leading the polls in Germany since March, with Friedriech Merz's CDU-CSU, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform (PO), and Alberto Núñez Feijóo's People's Party (PP) in Spain.

Both Germany's CDU-CSU and Spain's PP sit as opposition parties, while Tusk's PO is the ruling party in Poland.

The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group will likely contend for second place against the far right and national conservatives.

Two significant countries with left-leaning and labor-conscious prime ministers still in power are Olaf Scholz and Pedro Sánchez, from Germany and Spain, respectively.

Chancellor Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) is in third position, one seat behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

According to the polls, liberal-democrats Renew are bound to suffer heavy voter losses across Europe. France, which used to be a stronghold for the party, will become a battleground. President Macron's Renaissance party belongs to Renew.

Renew President Valérie Hayer will expel Dutch liberals from the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the party of former Dutch Premier Mark Rutte, after they agreed to a four-way coalition with Wilders' PVV in the Netherlands last week.

Far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her party FdI are among the largest members of the nationalist-conservative ECR, along with Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party and Spain's Vox. — Euronews


May 23, 2024
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