Slovakia, Italy, Latvia, and Malta are at the polls for the European Parliament elections

Today, citizens of Italy, Slovakia, Latvia, and Malta are heading to the polls for the European Parliament elections. In the Czech Republic, where the election process started yesterday, voting is continuing today. European Union (EU) member states are going to the polls to elect new members of the European Parliament (EP). The EP elections, which began with the Dutch people going to the polls on May 6, continued with the Czech Republic and Ireland yesterday.
In Italy, voters will cast their democratic preferences today and tomorrow in the process of voting that started today to determine the 76 members allocated to Italy in the 720-member European Parliament. The voting process will start at 14:00 today and continue until 22:00. The Italy Brothers party, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is expected to win the elections in the country. Meloni’s victory is also expected to influence the re-election of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is running for a second term. Seeking Meloni’s support, Von der Leyen had previously signaled approval for the European People’s Party to work with far-right groups in the European Parliament, on the condition that these far-right parties are pro-European Union and not ‘puppets of Russian President Vladimir Putin’.
In Slovakia, elections are overshadowed by the Fico attack. In Slovakia, voters are participating in an election in a tense political atmosphere caused by an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico last month. In the approximately 5.4 million population country, voters are casting their votes in an election witnessing the struggle between Fico’s Direction – Social Democracy (Smer-SD) and the liberal left-leaning main opposition party Progressive Slovakia (PS). In the country where approximately 4.36 million voters have the right to vote, the polls opened as of 07:00. Voting, which traditionally has a low turnout in Slovakia, will continue until 22:00.
Voting in Latvia will end at 20:00. In the Baltic country of Latvia, voters started to cast their votes at 08:00 at 945 polling stations across the country. Voting in the country, which will be represented by 9 members in the European Parliament, will end at 20:00.
370,000 voters will cast their votes in Malta. In the small island country of Malta, with approximately 370,000 eligible voters, voters started to cast their votes at 07:00. Maltese citizens will determine 6 Members of the European Parliament and the members of the 68 local councils in today’s elections. On the first day of the elections, the Netherlands, and on the second day, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Estonia went to the polls.
Elections will be held in 20 countries tomorrow. On Sunday, the fourth and final day of the elections, voting will take place in 20 member states of the 27-member union, including Germany, France, and Poland. In the European Parliament elections, where approximately 360 million voters have the right to vote, the representation rate in the 720-member parliament is determined according to the populations of the countries. In this context, countries like Malta and Luxembourg have 6 MEPs, while Germany is represented by 96 MEPs.
Fico, who was attacked, voted with a walking stick. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who cast his vote at a hospital in Bratislava with a walking stick, said, ‘This election is important. We need to vote for representatives who support peace initiatives, not the continuation of war.’