Ireland and the Czech Republic are voting today in the elections to the European Parliament

Elections to the European Parliament began in Ireland today — polling stations opened at 07:00 local time and will remain open until 22:00. In the Czech Republic, voting will open in the afternoon and end tomorrow, June 8.

Deutsche Welle and Euronews write about it.

In total, European voters will elect 720 deputies to the European Parliament this time, who will represent their countries. In various European countries, elections are held on one of four days — from June 6 to 9, depending on national voting customs. Ireland will send 14 elected deputies to the European Parliament, and the Czech Republic — 21.

Irelandʼs left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein party wants to use the European Parliament vote to shore up support ahead of elections scheduled for late 2024.

"Vote Sinn Féin on Friday as the first step to change in government. It is time for new people with new solutions and new ideas in local self-government and at the European level. Change starts here," urged Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou Macdonald.

A record number of far-right candidates are participating in this yearʼs European Parliament elections, but it is not yet clear how many will be elected.

According to the national exit poll, the coalition of "Left-Greens" and Labor (GroenLinks-PvdA) is leading by a small margin in the elections in the Netherlands, which began yesterday, with eight mandates. And the far-right Party of Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders, a great opponent of aid to Ukraine, will have seven mandates. This is a significant success for his party, as the PVV did not have a single seat in the previous elections to the European Parliament and received it only after the reshuffle in connection with the exit of Great Britain from the European Union.

The final results of the elections to the European Parliament will be announced after the end of voting in all 27 member states of the European Union, on Sunday, June 9 at 11:00 p.m. Kyiv time.

Elections to the European Parliament

The European Parliament is the legislative body of the European Union, which is an important platform for political debate, decision-making and laws that are binding on all countries of the bloc. It oversees the European Commission, which is the executive body, and approves its president. And most importantly, MEPs vote for the EU budget.

At the same time, unlike national parliaments, MEPs do not have a legislative initiative and, together with the Council of the EU, vote on documents prepared by the European Commission. They can only make amendments or certain changes to the finished documents.

The EP was founded in 1958, and since 1979, elections to it have been held every five years. Deputies to the EU legislative body are elected by citizens of 27 countries — members of the bloc, so that the elected representatives represent their interests.

The total number of representatives in the European Parliament for each EU state is calculated according to the so-called principle of degressive proportionality. Simply put, an MEP from a large country represents more people than an MEP from a small country. This allows smaller states to have more deputies than they would have under "fair" proportional distribution.

Since the European Parliament is one of the key bodies in making decisions and distributing the EU budget, these elections are of great importance for Ukraine. For example, the dominance of pro-Russian politicians in it could mean a weakening of European support for Ukraine.