Slovakia began voting in European elections on Saturday, after an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Roberto Fico bolstered support for his pro-Putin camp, and Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni is the favorite, will follow suit in the afternoon.
After the Dutch on Thursday, who confirmed the rise of the extreme right – but according to estimates, the social democratic and ecological coalition preceded them, then the Irish and the Czechs on Friday, on Saturday the Latvians and the Maltese will enter the race. this election marathon that lasts four days in 27 EU countries.
Slovak voters are set to nominate 15 MEPs, as an attack on the populist prime minister sent his Smer-SD party soaring in the latest polls.
Robert Fico (59) was shot and injured on May 15. Weightless after two operations, he announced on Wednesday that he was ready to return to work this month, describing the attacker as a “messenger” of the “political hatred” held against him by the opposition.
In this country of 5.4 million people, a member of NATO and the EU since 2004, the attack fueled a campaign by her party, Smer-SD, which describes itself as a “party of peace”, opposes the delivery of arms to Ukraine and criticizes ” increasingly frequent attacks by warmongers from Brussels”.
– “Our interests, not the interests of Brussels” –
“I voted for Smer, they always defended our interests, Slovak, not Brussels,” Jozef Zahorsky, a 44-year-old teacher from Modra, a town near the capital Bratislava, told AFP.
In contrast, 20-year-old student Kristina Morhacova says she chose the liberal PS party because of its “progressive principles” and to “avoid Smer and society hoarding all the power.”
“Only a stronger EU can turn challenges into opportunities,” Slovak European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic responded to X.
The President of the European Parliament, the Maltese Roberta Metsola, also marked X, in the accompanying photo, that she has fulfilled her duty as a voter in her country.
It remains to be seen what the participation rate will be in the election of Slovak MEPs: it was only 22.7% during the 2019 European elections, one of the lowest in the EU.
In most member states, including France and Germany, the vote will take place on Sunday. A total of 720 members of the European Parliament must be elected, in a tense climate due to the war in Ukraine and suspicions of Russian disinformation.
In Denmark, two days before the elections in this country, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was “hit” by a man in a Copenhagen square on Friday, according to her services, which further darkened the atmosphere.
– “Sovereignists are attacking the EU” –
In the afternoon, attention will shift to Italy, the third largest country in the EU, where more than 47 million citizens are going to the polls to elect 76 members of the European Parliament. The opening of polling stations scheduled for 15:00 (GMT) until 23:00 (GMT) continues on Sunday.
Coming to power at the end of 2022, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni topped the list of her post-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia (FDI): according to the latest polls, she has 27% of voting intentions, followed by the Democratic Party (left) with 21% and the Movement five stars (populists) with 15.5%.
“Sovereignists attack the EU”, headlined the daily La Repubblica (center-left).
Ms Meloni will vote as soon as the polls open in her constituency in Rome, where the temperature will be around 35C. In a video message on Friday, she recalled her priorities: “Defend the borders from illegal immigration, protect the real economy and jobs, fight against unfair competition that harms our companies (…) support the family and the birth rate.”
Fratelli d’Italia could send 22 MEPs to the European Parliament, compared to six currently: enough to contribute to the expected far-right wave and confirm the central role of Giorgia Meloni, whose support will be crucial to the candidacy of Ursula von der Leyen, of the EPP ( right), for the second mandate of the President of the European Commission.
The Italian leader is courted by Mrs. von der Leyen, who sees her as a friendly, pro-European and pro-Ukrainian partner. But also the leading figure of the French RN Marine Le Pen, whose party is largely the leader in France and who dreams of forming a large nationalist group in parliament.
Eurosceptic, radical and far-right forces are currently divided into two groups in a semicircle, and Giorgia Meloni has so far been cautious about the possibility of unification.
– © 2024 AFP