Kate Connolly
In the southwest German city of Karlsruhe, two members of the far-right AfD party were reportedly attacked on Saturday by a masked gang bearing baseball bats in front of a cafe. Three people suffered “light injuries” according to authorities, who said on Sunday that five people had been arrested following the attack.
In Germany, alongside the European parliamentary elections, 100,000 local and district elections are also taking place in several states.
The Karlsruhe attack is the latest in a string of incidents involving violence against German politicians in the lead up to the European elections.
In the city of Dresden on Saturday, an MP from the AfD in the state parliament was attacked by a man, while in the state of Schleswig Holstein at an election rally held by the Social Democrats, a firework thrown from the sidelines narrowly missed the MP Bengt Berndt. A politician for the far-left Die Linke was also attacked in a supermarket in the state of Thuringia and verbally abused.
There have been calls for more protection for politicians and tougher sentences for those who attack them, following these and numerous other incidents including the stabbing of AfD party candidate Heinrich Koch in the south-west city of Mannheim. The stabbing took place less than a week after a 29 year old policeman was stabbed to death by a 25 year old Afghan man who appears to have aimed his attack at an anti-Islam group called Pax Europa. The policeman died when he intervened to stop the attacker.
Last month the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, vowed to fight a surge in violence against politicians following an attack on Matthias Ecke, a member of the European parliament for the SPD, who was hospitalised after being attacked while he was campaigning.
Earlier a 28 year old putting up posters for the Greens was also injured in an attack. Former Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey, was attacked in May at an event at a Berlin library by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing an unidentified hard object.
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll is in Brussels, where some have gone all out for the country’s triple elections:
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has sought to stress the importance of these elections, painting a stark picture of what he believes is at stake.
He told reporters:
It’s our vote that decides if the future we’re building in Europe and, consequently also in Spain, is a future of progress or a future of regression.
It decides if we want a Europe that continues to persist in united response to the challenges and crises that lie ahead, or if we opt for a reactionary Europe; one of cutbacks, of regression, of reaction.
That’s why I believe it is important – with our vote we decide whether we want a Europe that moves forward or a Europe that moves backwards.”
Lo que se decide hoy para el futuro de España y de Europa es de una enorme importancia.
Animo a la participación, porque es el voto el que decide si queremos una Europa de avances o una Europa de retroceso.
Hoy, con nuestro voto, decidimos. pic.twitter.com/AX3lDaMJNd
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) June 9, 2024
Up to 450 million citizens across the EU are being called to go to the polls in these elections – a figure that in some countries includes 16-year-olds.
This time around there has been an expansion in youth voting, with Belgium and Germany joining Austria and Malta in giving 16-year-olds the vote.
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, appears to be nudging people to go and vote, writing on X: “Bad politicians are elected by good citizens who stay home.”
Złych polityków wybierają dobrzy obywatele, którzy zostają w domach.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) June 9, 2024
Lili Bayer
At 6:30am, the halls of a school in central Budapest were quiet.
Seven people sat at a long table as I walked into the room designated for my voting district.
After they checked my name in a booklet with a list of eligible voters, I signed and got five pieces of paper: one ballot paper for the European parliament election and four for local elections, including the mayor of Budapest.
In the European race, all eyes are on Tisza, a new party led by former government insider Péter Magyar.
Magyar has positioned himself as a centrist and is aiming to challenge the ruling Fidesz party’s dominant position in Hungarian politics. “We are building a country where there is no right, no left – only Hungarian,” he declared at a rally in the capital yesterday.
Fidesz, led by Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, enjoys the support of 50% of decided voters, according to a study published Friday by pollster Medián. Magyar’s Tisza party, meanwhile, stood at 27%.
The prime minister, who is the EU’s most Kremlin-friendly leader, has focused his election campaign on what he has described as a “peace” platform.
The ruling party has run an intense campaign claiming – without providing proof – that there is a global conspiracy to force Hungary into a direct war with Russia and that Hungary’s opposition is being directed by the west.
On the ballot paper for mayor of Budapest, one name was crossed out: Alexandra Szentkirályi, the candidate for the ruling Fidesz party, who pulled out of the race on Friday and endorsed another candidate, Dávid Vitézy.
Vitézy is challenging Gergely Karácsony, the incumbent, who is supported by multiple opposition parties.
Along with European parliament elections, Belgium is also holding a general election and regional ballots today.
But it is the national vote – which is expected to see a surge in support for a far-right party that wants to break up the country – that is dominating discourse in Belgium.
Polls suggest that the right will rise in Flanders and the left in primarily French-speaking Wallonia, suggesting a potentially fiendishly complicated coalition negotiation in the weeks and months to come.
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has this dispatch from Brussels:
In the first European election since Britain left the EU, voters are being asked to elect 720 lawmakers to the world’s only directly elected transnational parliament.
This year’s ballot is being closely watched as opinion polls forecast significant gains for far-right and anti-establishment parties, which would have far-reaching consequences for the EU’s policy agenda.
My colleague Jennifer Rankin in Brussels has put together this primer on the elections:
Millions across Europe expected to vote in final day of European parliament elections
Good morning. It’s super Sunday – today 21 countries in Europe go to the polls, including Italy which runs its ballot over two days.
Among the 21 countries voting today are the EU’s other big three economies: Spain, Germany and France.
We’ll be following the action all day and late into the night, with a fairly definitive picture of the parliament expected to emerge around 1am on Monday CET (midnight BST). Predicted results are expected to appear earlier in the evening.
