Irish and Czech Republic voters go to the polls

Brussels: Voters in Ireland and the Czech Republic, two countries where immigration was a key issue on the campaign trail, took to the polls Friday on the second day of the elections for the European Parliament, where a surge of the far-right across the 27-nation bloc was likely to emerge from the electoral marathon.

Final results will not be released until Sunday night, once voting is completed in every country. However, an exit poll Thursday after the elections kicked off in the Netherlands confirmed that Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV party should make big gains.

Although a coalition of pro-European parties pushed the PVV into second place amid a bigger turnout than at the previous EU elections, Wilders’ party looked to have made the biggest gains of the night.

Since the last EU election in 2019, populist, far-right and extremist parties have taken over governments in three EU nations, are part of governing coalitions in several others, and appear to have surging public support across the continent. Far-right parties in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy are frontrunners in the EU elections. Immigration has risen up Ireland’s political agenda, with independent candidates calling for tighter controls expected to win many votes.