The election will shape how the European bloc confronts challenges including a hostile Russia, increased industrial rivalry with China and the United States, climate change and immigration.
An unofficial exit poll on Thursday suggested that Geert Wilders's anti-migrant hard right party should make important gains in the Netherlands, even though a coalition of pro-European parties has probably pushed it into second place.
Since the last EU election in 2019, populist or far-right parties now lead governments in three nations – Hungary, Slovakia, and Italy – and are part of the ruling coalition in others, including Sweden, Finland, and soon, the Netherlands.
The elections come at a testing time for voter confidence in a bloc of some 450 million people. Over the last five years, the EU has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump, and an energy crisis fueled by the war in Ukraine – the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War II.
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