Deutsche Welle, 22 May 2014
Voters are heading to the ballot boxes in Britain and the Netherlands as both countries open up polling in European parliamentary elections. Euroskeptic parties were expected to make large gains in both countries.
Voters are heading to the ballot boxes in Britain and the Netherlands as both countries open up polling in European parliamentary elections. Euroskeptic parties were expected to make large gains in both countries.
British and
Dutch voters were heading to the polls on Thursday, three days ahead of the
bulk of other EU countries, with populist right-wing parties tipped to be the
big winners of the day.
Britain's
anti-immigration, anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) has confounded analysts
with its popularity in opinion polls ahead of the vote. Although UKIP has no
members of parliament in Britain's lower house, it enters the fray on Thursday
ahead of the main opposition Labour Party.
UKIP leader
Nigel Farage has already ruled out a deal with the leader of the Dutch
anti-Islam Party of Freedom (PVV), Geert Wilders, claiming that its European
Parliament grouping is anti-Semitic.
Polls show
UKIP, which wants Britain to leave the EU and introduce a points-based
immigration system, even poses a threat to David Cameron's center-right
Conservative Party.
In the
Netherlands, Wilders' party hopes to win six of the 26 seats up for grabs.
Unlike Farage he is a national lawmaker, and will not stand personally for an
EU seat.
Grouped
with French far-right
Wilders,
whose party is leading national opinion polls, has conducted its campaign
vowing to take the Netherlands out of the EU and abandon the euro.
Also a part
of the PVV's European grouping is France's Front National, the former leader of
which, Jean-Marie Le Pen, provoked outrage on Wednesday by suggesting that the
deadly ebola virus in Africa could address Europe's immigration problem.
Most EU
countries are holding their elections on Sunday, with Ireland, the Czech
Republic, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia holding their polls in the interim.
With some
26 million people out of work across the EU, euroskeptic and far-right parties
are expected to capitalize on rising support across the bloc for their
anti-immigration and anti-EU platforms.
rc/tj (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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