26 May 2019; DW: Polling stations in 21 EU states are set to open — seven states have already voted. Once the ballots are counted, the new EU Parliament is expected to drift slightly to the right, as Bernd Riegert reports from Brussels.
Polling stations will open their doors in 21 member countries on Sunday, including the major EU states of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland. These five together send almost half of all MEPs to the European Parliament: 348 out of a total 751.
Voting in the world's only international parliament began on Thursday with the Netherlands and the UK, followed by Ireland and the Czech Republic on Friday and Latvia, Malta and Slovakia on Saturday. A total of 420 million citizens are eligible to cast their ballot. Election researchers expect the low turnout of the previous vote in 2014, which was only 43%, could rise slightly this time around.
Liberal democracy vs. nationalism
The EU's largest parties have said this year's vote could be a life-changing election.
The leading candidate for the center-right European People's Party (EPP), Germany's Manfred Weber, and the frontman of the center-left Party of European Socialists (PES), Frans Timmermans, the outgoing European Commission Vice President from the Netherlands, both agreed on this point during the election campaign.
Their top concern in this election is to maintain cohesion in the EU, defending the "liberal" democracies against the "illiberal" model backed by nationalists and populists, among them Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
French President Emmanuel Macron has made calls for a "Europe that protects," and wants far-reaching reforms in the social and economic fields. Italian right-wing populist leader Matteo Salvini, on the other hand, wants to radically reduce cooperation in Europe.
Like right-wing populists in numerous EU member states, Salvini follows the motto of "My country first!" His party will probably be the most influential force in Italy in this election...
