Europeans voting in EU elections today are expected to lurch further to the right, as Germany’s leading party suffers losses, while Austrian exit polls indicate the far-Right is leading the nation’s vote count.
The election, which has been held across the continent over the last three days, is the first since Brexit, the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On top of these, many voters have been hit by the cost of living, have concerns about migration and the cost of the green transition and are disturbed by geopolitical tensions, including war in Ukraine, and hard and far-right parties have seized on this and offered the electorate an alternative.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SDU) was projected to come third, taking just 14% of the votes, a historic low for the party according to German broadcasters who commissioned exit polls.
Far and hard-right parties in Germany, meanwhile, have been projected to take the lead.
A conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) took home 29.5% of the vote.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), took second, with 16.5% of the votes – a massive 5.5% increase compared to the 2019 EU election.
A similar result was seen in Austrian exit polls, with the far-right FPOe party leading the vote count.
If confirmed, it would be the first time the group has topped a nationwide ballot in the Alpine country.
The Freedom Party (FPOe) gained 27 percent of the votes, ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP), according to the polls released by the country’s main media outlets.
The EU Parliament, which will be made up of 72 after the election finishes, is made up of multi-party factions.
While centre-left and centre-right factions have largely dominated the bloc’s parliament since its last election in 2019, these parties are broadly expected to lose seats as more and more Europeans turn to more extreme parties in the hopes that they may solve their problems with the EU.
A projection by Europe Elects pollster on Sunday showed the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) could gain just five seats compared to the last parliament to win a total of 183. The Socialists, who include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, are seen losing four seats to get 136.
In contrast, the poll said the national-conservative European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) was likely to get five more deputies for a total of 73 and the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group could get eight more seats for a total of 67.
More deputies could join the right and far-right groups from among the so far non-affiliated deputies of whom there would be 79, the poll said.
Meanwhile, the European Greens, facing a backlash from hard-pressed households, farmers and industry over costly EU policies limiting CO2 emissions, look set to be among the big losers with the poll on Sunday giving them only 56 deputies, a loss of 15.
Forecasts for the liberal group Renew Europe are also grim, given the expectation that Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National will trounce French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance in France.
The Sunday poll put the Renew group’s losses at 13 seats, forecasting it will end up with 89.
The European Parliament will issue an EU-wide exit poll at around 7:30pm BST and then a first provisional result after 10pm when the final votes, in Italy, have been cast.