Europeans begin vote for new Parliament

Britain and the Netherlands begin voting Thursday, in the elections to the European parliament that are expected to see a swing towards populist right-wing parties.

The elections, which began at 0530 GMT in the Netherlands and are spread over four days in the EU’s 28 member states, are expected to see major gains for parties bent on dismantling the European Union from the inside.

“I believe in Europe, but I think there are far too many rules coming from Brussels,” Margreet de Jonge, 63, told AFP as she cast her ballot in The Hague, echoing the view of many that the EU has become a bloated bureaucracy.

When the results are announced from 2100 GMT on Sunday, eurosceptic parties may top the polls in Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

The anti-immigration and anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) of Nigel Farage, and Geert Wilders’ virulently anti-Islam Party of Freedom (PVV), are both forecast to make big gains.

UKIP’s rise has rocked the British political establishment as a party without a single representative in its national parliament heads into the European election slightly ahead of the main opposition Labour Party, according to a poll published by the Times on the morning of the vote.

Farage, a former financial trader who likes to hold court with journalists in the pub, has ruled out joining a far-right bloc of Wilders’ party and France’s National Front, led by Marine Le Pen.

Wilders hopes UKIP will sign up to the grouping, but Farage has refused to do business with an alliance involving the National Front, which he considers anti-Semitic.

– Jobless turn against EU –

With 26 million people out of work across the EU, including more than half of those aged under 25 in countries such as Greece and Spain, eurosceptic and far-right parties have picked up massive support on anti-immigration and anti-EU platforms.

The latest polls show eurosceptics and others have struck a chord with disgruntled voters and could secure almost 100 seats in the new parliament, trebling their number in the 751-seat assembly.

A survey by PollWatch showed conservatives holding a narrow lead over their socialist rivals in the next parliament, with the European People’s Party (EPP) on for 217 seats against 201 for the Socialists and Democrats (S&D).

While that would leave the mainstream groups still the two biggest parties, the EPP would drop from 35.8 percent to just short of 29 percent of the total seats, with the S&D up marginally to 26.8 percent.