Irish, Czechs hold EU vote after Dutch far-right gains

Irish and Czech voters on Friday pick up the baton in the EU's marathon elections after a strong showing -- but no knock-out blow -- from the Dutch far-right on opening day.

Ireland's 37-year-old prime minister Simon Harris cast an early morning vote near his home Delgany, a village south of Dublin, before a whistlestop tour to canvass for both local and European Parliament elections.

"I admire his energy, although I don't vote for his party," said Keith O'Reilly, a 41 year-old IT worker, on his way out of the polling station.

"They're getting so many things wrong, the migration issue for one thing," he told AFP.

For the first time in an Irish EU vote, many candidates are running on an anti-immigration platform, either as independents or for fringe nationalist parties.

Polls in the Czech Republic were opening later at 1200 GMT, ahead of Sunday's main election day when most of the European Union's 27 nations -- including powerhouses Germany and France -- will vote.

Surveys point to a string of gains for the far right across the bloc -- up to a quarter of the EU's 720 parliament seats.

Exit polls in the Netherlands showed the Freedom Party (PVV) of anti-immigration eurosceptic Geert Wilders getting a boost with seven EU lawmaker seats -- putting it in second place.

But the tight Dutch result -- in which a Green-left alliance looked set for first place -- might provide some comfort for centrists hoping to maintain their majority.

That was the early assessment of Eurasia Group's managing director Mujtaba Rahman.

"There'll be lots of noise over next few days about the far right surge in EU. The reality is more boring," wrote the analyst on X, predicting that "the centre will largely hold".

- Grievances -

The prospect of a rightward lurch has rattled the parliament's main groupings, the conservative European People's Party (EPP) and the leftist Socialists and Democrats.

They still look to be the two biggest blocs but current European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, of the EPP, may need support from part of the far-right to secure a second term.

With an eye on the horse-trading that may be needed, von der Leyen has been courting Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, who heads the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party.

The EU vote comes at a time of major geopolitical instability almost two and a half years into Russia's war on Ukraine.

The far right is looking to tap into grievances among the bloc's 370 million eligible voters, fatigued by a succession of crises from the Covid pandemic to the fallout of Moscow's invasion.

In Ireland, with around 20 percent of the population born outside the country and record levels of asylum seekers, anti-migrant sentiment has escalated.

Emily, a 21-year-old first-time voter who declined to give her full name, said she was "worried" about the far right's rise.

"I think the others need to get their act together," she said. "It's incredible the type of anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become normalised here."

The question for many Irish voters is whether Harris's centre-right Fine Gael will beat the main opposition party Sinn Fein, with local elections held the same day.

Support for Sinn Fein has declined sharply, with its progressive and pro-migration stances at odds with much of its working-class base.

- Apathy -

To the east, Czech politicians face widespread apathy to the EU vote, after the country had the second lowest turnout last time around in 2019, at 28.72 percent.

Polls put the centrist ANO movement of billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis in the lead, ahead of a centre-right coalition.

In a message to voters early Friday, Babis urged them to "expel from the European Parliament the green fanatics and the pro-migration enthusiasts who hae settled down there."

Fears of Russian meddling were also raised in the vote run-up after Czech authorities busted a website alleged to be a Kremlin front pushing Russian propaganda.

The probe into the Voice of Europe website has since spread to Belgium -- home of the European Parliament -- after allegations EU lawmakers were paid by the outlet.

Over the weekend, scrutiny will shift to the EU's bigger economies as they open polling stations.

Marine Le Pen's National Rally is predicted to come out on top in France, as is Meloni's party in Italy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's far-right Fidesz.

In Germany, the extreme-right AfD is polling second, behind the opposition conservatives.

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