The EU elections|Europe votes

Wilders second in the Netherlands – red-green biggest

The first polling station survey of the EU election weekend, which comes from the Netherlands, shows that the red-green alliance GL-PvdA becomes the largest and gets one more mandate than Geert Wilder's right-wing nationalist PVV. This is reported by Dutch television according to TT.

Wilders won last year's parliamentary elections and was expected to be the biggest in the EU elections as well. The PVV did not receive a mandate in the last EU election and the expected second place in Thursday's election appears to mean seven mandates for the party, writes Reuters.

The Netherlands was the first to vote in the EU. Most countries, including Sweden, vote on Sunday. In order not to influence the other countries' voting, the Dutch final result is not published until Sunday evening.

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The EU elections are underway - Wilder's far right is enjoying success

On Thursday, the Netherlands is the first country to vote in this year's EU parliamentary elections. After the victory in the national election last autumn, anti-Islam Gert Wilders and his right-wing nationalist party the Freedom Party (PVV) are counting on another victory, TT writes.

However, the state of opinion is even and in the last poll before the election, the PVV and the alliance PvDA-GL, which consists of social democrats and environmentalists, were predicted to get eight mandates each.

Behind follows liberal VVD on five seats, followed by conservative CDA, neo-conservative NSC and liberal D66 on two each. After that, a whole series of the country's many small parties fight for the remaining mandates.

The official results from the Netherlands will be delayed as most of the other EU countries do not vote until Sunday. However, a polling station survey is expected to be released at 21.

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Albert first in Europe to vote: "The right to vote is important"

The Dutch coastal town of Castricum has a tradition of opening one of its polling stations one minute after midnight on election day. Even long before that, a lot of Castricum residents were queuing up to be the first in Europe to cast their vote in the EU parliamentary elections, De Telegraaf reports.

Albert Kavsek was at the front of the queue. He urges everyone to take the chance to vote in the election.

- The right to vote is important. People have given their lives to protect that right, he says.

The Netherlands is the only country in Europe that already votes on Thursday. Other countries will follow in the coming days. In most countries, including Sweden, the election takes place on Sunday.

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Expert: The EU's rightward turn seems to be slowing down

Many forecasts suggest that a right-wing wind will blow through Europe during this weekend's elections to the European Parliament. But Göran von Sydow, director of the Swedish Institute for European Political Studies, tells SvD that the right turn has slowed down in recent weeks.

He says that the green parties have made a slight recovery, while the parties on the far right have weakened in public opinion.

- In addition, some regroupings are taking place and some parties have gone from a group to becoming groupless. This can be changed after the election.

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Professor: The power of the far right is not decided by the voters

The far-right's influence in the EU will not be determined by how many votes they get in the election, but to what extent the center-right is prepared to "normalize" the parties. That's what Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU law, told The Guardian.

Analysts and observers agree that the success of Europe's national conservative and far-right parties will lead to a new dynamic in the EU Parliament, even if they will not get a majority.

- Parts of the far right are clearly striving to maximize their influence by cooperating, rather than fighting. And it is clear that some of the center-right are very open to it, says an anonymous EU source.