Netherlands kicks off 4-day parliamentary vote – DW – 06/06/2024

The EU election is the world’s second-biggest democratic exercise after the election in India.

Mobilizing the 350 million people eligible to cast ballots in the EU is not straightforward. Voter turnout was around just 50% in 2019.

Higher voter turnout is projected for the 2024 vote, according to a poll conducted earlier this year in which 60% of voters said they were interested in the election. Higher turnout could prove decisive in a vote that members of both the left and right have called crucial.

DW’s Bernd Riegert takes a look at the impact this could have on the 2024 election.

Following the Netherlands on Thursday and Ireland on Friday, other EU member states will hold their polling over the weekend. Germany is set to vote on Sunday.

The vote could see close to 360 million people across the 27 EU member nations cast their ballots over a period of four days.

However, turnout is traditionally rather low. In 2019, the share of people voting across the bloc reached a record high of just over 50%.

Europe-wide results are slated to be announced on Sunday night after all European countries have completed voting.

The European Parliament is elected every five years with EU citizens choosing their representatives as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). 

The body can have a large impact on the lives of EU citizens, passing laws ranging from economic policy to security and climate change.

This year’s vote takes place amid increased uncertainty as the bloc reels from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a weak economic recovery, the fallout from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, tensions over rising immigration and the threats posed by climate change — which are already being felt through the wildfires, droughts and floods that have hit different parts of the bloc.

It is also the first election since Brexit, when the United Kingdom formally left the EU.

The Netherlands on Thursday kicked off a bloc-wide election marathon for the European Parliament.

The country is the only EU member state to start its polling so early, followed by Ireland on Friday. 

Dutch voters are set to provide an early litmus test of how far right the next EU parliament might shift as surveys show that an increased number of voters are considering voting for extreme right-wing parties.

The Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, the surprise winner of national elections last November, is projected to top the EU ballot in the Netherlands. 

The PVV dropped its vow of a “Nexit” referendum on leaving the 27-member bloc but the party’s manifesto remains fiercely eurosceptic.

A post-poll survey for the Netherlands will be aired Thursday night by national broadcaster NOS, giving a partial glimpse of what could come.

dvv/ab (dpa, Reuters, AFP, AP)