Surveys predict Europe’s far right will surge in EU elections next month, giving it more influence in Brussels politics even if mainstream players will still have greater weight.
Some 370 million voters are being called to cast ballots in the European Union’s 27 countries on June 6-9 to select the 720 lawmakers who will sit in the next European Parliament.
While voter-intention polls point to inroads by radical-right parties, the mainstream in the parliament — made up of three groups: the centre-right EPP, the left-leaning Socialists and Democrats, and the centrist Renew Europe — is still expected to end up ahead.
Those three groups are used to compromising among each other to get the majority needed for laws to pass.
The question, though, is how far the EPP — the European People’s Party of current European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen — will open its door to the extreme right.
