The hard-Right appeared to falter in the first vote of the EU elections as exit polls showed a Left-wing coalition winning the top spot in the Netherlands.
Results will formally be announced on Sunday evening but the expected victory by the Dutch Green and Labour parties has come as an early boost in the fight against the predicted hard-Right surge across the bloc.
The so-called GroenLinks-PvdA coalition is led by Labour’s Frans Timmermans, who has been dubbed the EU’s “climate pope”, and the Green’s Bas Eickhout.
The coalition will win eight of the Netherland’s 31 seats in the European parliament, according to the exit poll, compared to seven due to be picked up by Geert Wilders’ far-Right Freedom Party.
The rest of the seats are expected to be scattered across the political spectrum, with the Dutch farmers’ party forecast to have elected two MEPs for the first time.
“The narrative of the rise of the far-Right has been beaten in the Netherlands. Of course, it’s still tight, but we have won, a progressive coalition has won in the Netherlands. So really this is a good example and this is the message to the rest of Europe: go out to vote,” Mr Eickhout told the Euractiv news website.
The forecast did not discourage Mr Wilders, whose party won the recent Dutch national elections, given he only had a sole representative in the EU parliament after the 2019 ballot.
‘Biggest winner’
He declared his Freedom party the “biggest winner”, adding: “And super exciting because we can still become the biggest when the final results are announced on Sunday.”
The exit polls were said to have a margin of error by up to one seat per party.
The high score appears to fit the trend that nationalist and populist parties are set to make gains when the rest of the bloc votes on Saturday and Sunday.
Marine Le Pen’s French Rassemblement National, is expected to be the largest national delegation in the parliament.
Ahead of his country’s vote on Sunday, French president Emmanuel Macron has warned the EU could be “blocked” by a large contingent of far-Right parties.
“If France sends a very big far-Right delegation, if other countries do this, Europe could be blocked,” he told French television.
“Because what is a Europe where the extreme Right is strong? We must on June 9 fight to defend those who fight for Europe, because Europe protects us.”
Mr Macron’s centrist party is expected to win only half the number of votes of Mrs Le Pen’s party, according to polling.
“Come on, go vote on 9 June, it is very important. I say this because I always think back to our British friends who did not go to vote on Brexit day. Not going to vote is leaving the future of our continent and our country to others,” the French president added.