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BRUSSELS —The far-right was seen scoring big gains in Germany and Austria in Sunday's EU election, opinion polls showed, joining the Netherlands in offering the first signs that an expected rightward shift in the European Parliament is happening.
The far-right Alternative for Germany took second place behind the opposition conservatives with 16.5% of the vote, up from 11% in 2019, according to an exit poll published by public broadcaster ARD.
All three parties in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition suffered losses, according to the poll.
The results were in line with an expected broader shift in favor of rightwing parties in the European Parliament which covers a bloc of 450 million citizens.
Meanwhile, in Austria, the far-right Freedom Party is the likely winner of the ballot, according to a poll based on surveys carried out over the past week and published as voting there closed Sunday evening.
In the Netherlands, which voted Thursday, exit polls showed nationalist Geert Wilders' anti-immigration party was set to win seven of the 29 Dutch seats in the EU assembly, just one short of the combined seats of a Socialist Democrat-Greens alliance.
The new European Parliament is likely to be cooler on policies to address climate change while eager to support measures to limit immigration to the EU.
The parliament could also be more fragmented, which would make adopting any measure trickier and slower as the EU confronts challenges including a hostile Russia and increased industrial rivalry from China and the United States.
It also means both German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, whose party is expected to take a beating at the benefit of Marine Le Pen's far-right, could emerge diminished and weakened.
Voting began Thursday in the Netherlands and in other countries on Friday and Saturday, but the bulk of EU votes will be cast Sunday, with France, Germany, Poland and Spain opening their polls and Italy holding a second day of voting.
The European Parliament votes legislation that is key for citizens and businesses in the 27-nation EU.
"I don't always agree with the decisions that Europe takes," 89-year-old retiree Paule Richard said after voting in Paris. "But I still hope that there will be a reckoning in all European countries, so that Europe can be a unified bloc and look in the same direction."
Right turn
For many years, voters across the bloc have complained that EU decision-making is complex, distant and disconnected from daily realities, which explains often low turnout in EU elections.
"People don't know who really has the power, between the Commission and Parliament," another French voter, Emmanuel, said in a northern Paris polling station.
"And it's true that it raises questions and breeds mistrust which today might not exist if things were clearer," the 34-year-old programmer said.
The center-right European People's Party (EPP) is projected in opinion polls to remain the European Parliament's largest group, putting its candidate to head the European Commission, incumbent Ursula von der Leyen of Germany, in pole position for a second term.
However, she may need support from some right-wing nationalists, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, to secure a parliamentary majority, giving Meloni and allies more leverage.
The European Parliament will issue an EU-wide exit poll at around 2030 CET (1830 GMT) and then a first provisional result after 2300 CET when the final votes, in Italy, have been cast.
Many voters have been hit by the higher cost of living, have concerns about migration and the cost of the green transition and are disturbed by geopolitical tensions, including the war in Ukraine.
Hard and far-right parties have seized on this and offered the electorate an alternative.
"Whoever believes that we need a change of course and that things can be done much better in Brussels has only one alternative, which is Vox," the leading candidate for the far-right Spanish party, Jorge Buxade, said after voting in Madrid.
In Belgium, voters also elect federal and regional chambers Sunday and are forecast to back far-right Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang in record numbers, although it could still be kept from office by other parties.
Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.