voters in the Netherlands are the first to vote in the European elections

Polling stations opened in the Netherlands on Thursday. The polls announce a close match between the extreme right and the alliance of the Greens with the Socialists, but above all a strong abstention.

The Europeans kick off in the Netherlands on Thursday June 6. 370 million Europeans are called to the polls until Sunday and the first to vote are the Dutch. In all, 31 seats are to be filled for this founding country of the European Union which, in the legislative elections last November, placed the far-right party of populist and Europhobe Gueert Wilders in the lead. The PPV (Freedom Party) should, like the National Rally in France and according to the latest projections, send the largest contingent of elected officials to Strasbourg. He is neck and neck with the joint list of the Socialist Party and the Greens. Franceinfo went to the opening of a polling station in Putte, a border town with Belgium.

The only polling station in the commune was set up at the municipal school. No queue: barely one in two voters plans to travel, according to national polls. Kevin, in his forties, voted for the list of Gueert Wilders, whose party should make a remarkable entry into parliament. He explains that he wants to put an end to European overregulation and justifies his vote: “For farmers, nitrate, the end of gas… The price of electricity is increasing, everything is increasing!”

“There is no more room in the Netherlands!”

Franz, Dutch elector

at franceinfo

Next to him, Franz abounds: “It’s foreigners who benefit. There is no more room in the Netherlands ! We no longer have enough houses, money, and foreigners come to us even though they never pay anything.”says this retired trader.

Leaning against the school playground, an old man does not miss a bit of the exchange. Matias voted in favor of the joint list of the Greens and the Socialists. At 96, he says he aspires to “a world of peace, where everyone takes care of everyone, whether they are Muslim, black or even Buddhist”. “I am everyone’s friend”he concludes.

“Faced with Russia or China, my hope is that Europe remains a power”believes Malice, who came to vote with her husband. “We need a united Europe, not a Europe eaten away from the inside, she continues. A Europe and a strong defense.”

The results in the Netherlands will not be revealed before Sunday June 9, only estimates will be published in the evening on Thursday.