European elections live: Dutch voters head to the polls as four-day, 27-country ballot to select MEPs begins | European Union

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president and centre-right lead candidate, posted a video urging people to vote for the European People’s party.

The American ambassador in Budapest, David Pressman, has criticised the Hungarian government’s friendly links to Russia – and the Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó’s latest trip to Saint Petersburg.

“Hungary’s government says it is the ‘party of peace’ while continuing to stand with Putin’s party of war,” Pressman said.

“Hungary’s addiction to Russian energy is dangerous and unnecessary,” he said.

Pressman added: “Minister Szijjártó is right: energy diversification is not a matter of ideology but one of physics. The laws of physics in Hungary are no different than the laws of physics in every single one of Hungary’s EU partners, all of whom have chosen to reduce dependence on Putin.”

The American diplomat’s critique comes at a time when Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has centred its European election campaign around conspiracies that the west wants to pursue a direct conflict with Russia and force Hungarians to die in Ukraine.

Last weekend, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, spoke at a rally for “peace” where he claimed that Europe is preparing for war and that his political forces will stop this in the election.

Scholz signals tougher stance on deporting foreign-born criminals

Deborah Cole

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament he backed deporting violent foreign-born criminals even if they came from war-ravaged Syria or Afghanistan, after an Afghan asylum seeker allegedly killed a police officer.

Accused by the conservative opposition and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) during a heated debate of a lax position on deportations, Scholz signalled a tougher stance three days before Germans vote in European elections.

“Let me be clear: it outrages me when someone who has sought protection here in our country commits the most serious crimes,” he told MPs. “Such criminals should be deported, even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan.”

The 25-year-old Afghan suspect allegedly fatally stabbed a 29-year-old police officer who was trying to stop him from committing an attack ahead of a right-wing political rally in the south-western city of Mannheim. Scholz attributed the crime, which has dominated headlines, to “radical Islamism”.

The suspect arrived in Germany as a teenager in 2013 and although his claim for asylum was rejected, was not deported initially due to his young age.

Germany stopped carrying out deportations to Afghanistan in 2021 after the Taliban returned to power. It has determined the precarious security situation in Syria would prohibit sending people back there.

The country is on edge about security as it prepares to host the Euro 2024 men’s football championship, with massive crowds expected at stadiums and public viewing venues across Germany.

Scholz in his speech called for designating zones for bans on weapons — including knives — “particularly in hotspots and at major events”.

Lisa O’Carroll

As Europe goes to the polls, we will be reporting on disinformation.

We will rely on the work of hundreds of fact-checkers feeding into the the European Digital Media Observatory, the world’s biggest counter-information service and Elections24 Check, a hub of 40 fact checking organisations around Europe including many media.

Rapid alert units are also running across the EU with election commissions also on high alert for any foreign interference.

EDMO says it has seen the highest level of disinformation ever in the last year.

Among them are false claims running in social media in Germany that marking a cross that runs outside the circle provided for the vote on the ballot paper invalidates the vote.

Experts working close to the rapid alert units all around the EU say that they are seeing everything from voter suppression attempts in Italy (with videos resurfaced from previous elections) to fear mongering in Poland with claims that Ukrainian refugees have the right to vote.

Turnout in the Netherlands stood at 7% at 10:30am, according to Ipsos, NOS reported.

This is in line with turnout during the time in the previous election.

We spoke with Andreas Schieder, lead candidate for Austria’s Social Democratic party in the European elections, about the campaign.

“The overall main issue, of course, of this European election is the threat of a victory of the extreme right,” he said in a phone interview today.

He highlighted the issue of “the cost of living crisis,” pointing to high inflation in Austria. “And then I would say the issues are, of course, security policy, the war in Ukraine and Austrian security policy – neutrality – and then for sure, climate change, Green Deal, but mixed also with industry.”

Schieder also noted that in Austria “at the moment, there is a big debate on the nature restoration law.”

“And then, not to forget it, of course, migration is also an issue,” he said, adding that his position is that “we need European solutions on this issue, and we have now the migration pact.”

He also outlined the Social Democrats’ priorities, focusing on investing in European industrial production and a social Europe.

I made a concept called Europe first, instead of made in China. This was trying to focus on industrial production in Europe and to ramp it up and to become more independent … So we need more investment in our future, meaning also in industry and in production, in green projects, saying we need solar panels on our roofs, but not imported from China, but to produce them in Europe and to put it on our European roofs.

He added:

Secondly, social Europe: defending what we achieved, for minimum age, platform workers, pay transparency, working time limitations for truck drivers, but also asking for abolishing unpaid internships, and also having something like Erasmus for the elderly, and fair taxation.

We asked Anna Stürgkh, a candidate for Austria’s liberal NEOS party, what issues voters are bringing up the most.

“Migration is definitely the one that is talked about the most,” she said.

“And then, on the other hand, the war is overshadowing everything,” she said.

Stürgkh noted that “from 25ish onwards, it is definitely the Russian war on Ukraine that is a hot topic and that people want to talk about.”

“Interestingly, especially amongst the younger voters, the whole Gaza conflict is actually also really important to them and they want to talk about that as well,” she said.

“So when you go to schools – we’re in schools a lot – and actually they ask about kind of what the European role in this conflict should be, almost as much as the Russian war, so both these conflicts are very much overshadowing the election, I would say.”

Austria’s far-right Freedom party has controversially campaigned with posters portraying Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, embracing, with the slogan: “Stop EU madness.”

“It is like Peskov, when he has press conferences,” said Reinhold Lopatka, lead candidate for the Austrian People’s party, referring to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

“They are the voice of Putin here in Austria,” he said of the Freedom party.

Four parties in Austria have a “very clear position in favour of Ukraine” and “one party – very strong on the side of Russia,” he said.

The Freedom party’s lead candidate has been contacted for comment.

Reinhold Lopatka, lead candidate for the Austrian People’s party in the European election, told the Guardian that the issues of illegal migration, inflation and the war in Ukraine are dominating the campaign.

In a phone interview, Lopatka said that climate change has gotten less attention this time around. “It is still on the agenda, but it’s not topic number one, not number two, not number three – it is maybe number four or five.”

“This is the biggest difference to the last campaign. The last campaign was in a time when Fridays for Future reached the top of attention,” he said.

Asked about the Austrian public discussion’s focus on migration, Lopatka said:

The problem is that you have, each week, criminal cases like the stabbing of this policeman in Mannheim – and Austria is always in the media coverage very close to Germany.

If something is in Germany, it always reaches Austria. So all this with AfD, this far-right wing party, and all these discussions of remigration and all this, one or two days later we have the same discussion here in Vienna.”

The far-right, Lopatka said, has “simple answers” and the discussion on migration is “very emotional, not rational.”

The EU’s new migration and asylum pact is the “right step, in the right direction, a right move. But it took too much time, and now we have to do everything to fasten up, to not only to have the legal framework, but to use it for concrete actions,” he said.

He added:

This is the way how we try to keep voters on our side. Say, ‘yes, we have a problem. It’s a big problem, but we are working for a solution.’

And it is always my saying, the far-right wing parties, they don’t want the solution. They live from the problem. They get their support through the problem, so they are not interested in solving the problem. This is the big difference.

On Sunday, Austrians will vote to elect 20 members of the European parliament.

The far-right Freedom party is leading in opinion polls with around 29%.

It is followed by the Social Democratic party with about 22% and the Austrian People’s party with approximately 20%. NEOS is at about 10%.

On Wednesday afternoon, hours before Dutch polling stations opened, the far-right firebrand Geert Wilders – whose anti-Islam Freedom party (PVV) shocked Europe by finishing first in elections last November – was campaigning in The Hague’s market.

Surrounded by a mob of reporters seeking interviews and people demanding selfies, Wilders urged his supporters to vote, saying the election was “about asylum and national sovereignty. The coming days are crucial for the future of Europe.”

His remarks marked a departure from his usual anti-EU rhetoric. PVV has long called for a “Nexit” referendum on Dutch membership of the bloc, but had to drop that – and other – pledges in its recent agreement to form the next coalition government.

In the latest polls for the Netherlands’ 31 MEPs, PVV is predicted to go from one seat to eight, neck and neck with the Green-Left-Labour alliance led by the former commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, who is campaigning for a “free, sustainable, safe and democratic EU”.

Sermin Civi, 35, who came to the Netherlands from Turkey at one year old, was one of the crowd taking a selfie with Wilders, whom she said she admired for his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“What he says is true,” she said, “although he says it hard. It’s not about Moroccans and Turks who live here, but refugees. We work hard and we can’t even find a house. As he says, the country is full.”

Read the full story here, by Senay Boztas and Jon Henley.

Dutch voters are casting their ballots in the European election today.

Good morning and welcome back to the blog.

It’s the first day of the European elections, with Dutch voters going to the polls.

We will be delving into the latest in the Netherlands, and also looking at campaigns around the continent.

Stay tuned and send your comments to [email protected].