Voters expect key elections to better shape EU future

Voters across the 28-member European Union (EU) are heading for polling stations in the world's biggest pan-nation voting exercise amid concerns of the potential rise of populist parties in the region.

The latest elections for the world's largest trading bloc came at a time of uncertainties created by Brexit, a slowing economy and growing populist sentiments.

The once-in-every-five-year vote is the chance for ordinary citizens to help shape the European Parliament.

In an editorial published this week, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, commented: "We all have our destiny in our hands."

RICHER, POORER

In Britain, the election, which many thought they could have avoided until a delayed Brexit, was reduced to an ultimate protest over growing Brexit angst. Voters blame their economic distress on the widening wealth gap.

Retired teacher Pauline Roy said she voted Labor saying: "I trust them, more than any other party, to deliver Brexit."

Roy, who voted Leave in Britain's 2016 EU referendum, added: "Over the past years I feel that the rich have become richer and the poor have become poorer and the quality of every day life for the majority, has diminished, leading to many needing to hold down three jobs to make ends meet and more children living in poverty."

In Italy, Marco di Franco, 24, a student studying communications, said he will vote for the Five-Star Movement simply to "get rid of the political class".

"I don't believe we should have professional politicians," he said. "These people work for us and they just get rich."

A prominent issue exercising Europeans is the economy. The eurozone debt crisis gripped Europe almost 10 years ago, but it, along with the global financial crisis, still has impact on voters like Roy and Franco and a party, like The Five-Star Movement and the Brexit Party, that promises a better economy outside EU.

The results from Britain will show whether the newly launched Brexit Party, founded by veteran Eurosceptic Nigel Farage can win the largest number of the 73 British seats in the European Parliament.

The latest poll gave them 37 percent, while the ruling Conservatives are down to 7 percent, with the likelihood of the party's worst ever performance in an election since it was founded in the 1830s.

Lifelong Labor voter, grandmother Beryl Tarpey, who lives in Cheshire, said she planned to vote for the new Brexit Party. Her town council is solid Labor and has been for decades.

Tarpey, who voted leave three years ago, told Xinhua: "Call it a protest vote, but both Labor and the Conservatives are all over the place on the Brexit issue."

"It would be a betrayal of the referendum that was handed to us if our politicians at Westminster blocked us from leaving," she said.

CHANGING LANDSCAPE

The results from Britain will be a sideshow as the other 27 member states study changes in the political map of Europe.

As the elections are underway, the far right is riding high and threatening to reset the power balance of the Europe. Amid the surging populism which is growing on both the left and the right, countries such as Italy, Germany and France have already witness a changing political landscape.

Observers suggest that the election will likely produce a highly fragmented European Parliament, with the long-dominant center-left and center-right blocs unable to form a coalition by themselves, handing greater influence to smaller players such as the Liberals, Greens and populists.

Latest polls suggest that EU-critical parties could become the second-largest force in the parliament, with up to 35 percent of its 751 seats.

Daily Telegraph columnist Roger Bootle predicts that Eurosceptic parties are likely to do well in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Germany.

"The things that these parties have in common are mainly non-economic in character, although they do have economic consequences," he said. "The most important of these is immigration."

In almost all European countries there is growing resentment against the lack of control of borders.

"The biggest problem Italy has right now is all the immigrants," Italian housewife Maria Esther Di Genova, 53, told Xinhua. "This is why the crime rate is higher; this is why nobody can find a job."

Her 60-year-old husband lost his job two years ago when his company closed.

"That's because these people come in the country and all they do is take, take, take, take," she grumbled. "I will vote for the League because of all these migrants and if I didn't vote for the League I would vote for the Five Stars."

But fellow Italian, a 46-year-old door man Marco Aquilini, voiced different opinions.

"I can't vote for the League... I don't think it's right to close the ports," he said. "I voted for the League in the past but I can't do it now because they've become too extreme -- the more power they get the more extreme they become."

"You cannot turn back the clock and change is going to come," he said. "The best thing is to direct it, and make it work because you cannot stop it."

VOTE FOR HOPE

There are voters who are voting to offset the rightist movement and for a better Europe.

In Germany master's student Stella Marie Liderer, 25, said: "Every time I think of not voting that will mean the rightist sentiment getting more and more popular."

She said she hopes the outcome will be "more Green" in the EU parliament, and there will be more regulations conserving the nature and environment.

Fellow German countryman Thomas, 37, working in PR, said he does not expect much from the European elections or the European Parliament because already in Germany, the politicians usually do not keep the promises they made before an election.

"Nevertheless, I am going to vote on Sunday because I know that it is important and it is also about preventing the right-wing parties from becoming too powerful."

Office clerk Harald, 24, office clerk, said what he expects from the new European Parliament is that it will ensure that in future European member states stand closer together and solve problems together. "National unilateral efforts will result in Europe losing its international significance," he said.

The Brussels-based on-line site Politico says the millions of people across the EU will elect a new European Parliament in a vote likely to shift the continent's balance of power.

"Politicians across the bloc's 28 member states have cast the election as a crucial battle for the future of the Union, with nationalists and populists campaigning to halt EU integration and mainstream parties urging closer cooperation to solve the Continent's myriad challenges," says Politico.

(by Xinhua writers Zhai Wei in Brussels, Gui Tao in London, Larry Neild in Liverpool, Chen Zhanjie in Rome, Zhang Yuan in Berlin, Zhang Zhang in Warsaw and Yuan Liang in Budapest)