VOTERS in Ireland and the Czech Republic took to the polls today on the second day of the elections for the European Parliament, where a surge of the far-right across the 27-nation bloc was likely to emerge from the electoral marathon.

Final results will not be released until tomorrow night, once voting is completed in every country. However, an exit poll on Thursday after the elections kicked off in the Netherlands confirmed that Geert Wilders’s far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) party should make big gains.

Although a coalition of pro-European parties pushed the PVV into second place amid a bigger turnout than at the previous EU elections, Mr Wilders’s party looked to have made the biggest gains of the night.

Since the last EU election in 2019, populist, far-right and extremist parties have taken over governments in three EU nations, are part of governing coalitions in several others, and appear to have surging public support across the continent.

Far-right parties in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy are frontrunners in the EU elections.
 

Immigration has risen up Ireland’s political agenda, with independent candidates calling for tighter controls expected to win many votes. Ireland does not have a large far-right party capable of consolidating anti-immigrant sentiment.

The immigration issue is eroding support for Sinn Fein, which had been on track to become Ireland’s most popular party.

In the Czech election campaign, the far right condemned the EU’s plans to tackle immigration and climate change, as well as their strong opposition against military support for Ukraine.

Former populist prime Minister Andrej Babis and his centrist Yes 2011 movement campaigned under the headline: “No to immigration and the green madness.”

Mr Babis espouses a strong anti-migrant rhetoric, which unites him with another anti-migration politician, Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister.

Yes 2011 led the polls ahead of the centre-right Together coalition, which consists of the conservative Civic Democratic Party of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Christian Democrats and the liberal-conservative TOP 09 party.

Two other government parties, the Pirate Party and Stan, a group of mayors and independent candidates, are also expected to win seats.