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What's at stake in the European Parliament election this week
The Hindu
European Union citizens vote for MEPs amid rising far-right power, economic concerns, and geopolitical tensions, impacting EU leadership and policies.
Nearly 400 million European Union citizens can go to the polls over the coming days to elect members of the European Parliament, or MEPs, in one of the biggest global democratic events.
Far-right parties are seeking to gain more power amid a rise in the cost of living and farmers' discontent, while the wars in Gaza and Ukraine stay on the minds of voters. One of the biggest questions is whether European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will remain in charge as the public face of the EU.
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Here is a look at the election and the biggest issues at stake:
EU elections are held every five years across the 27-member bloc. This year marks the 10th parliamentary election since the first polls in 1979, and the first after Brexit.
The vote takes place from June 6-9. Initial results can only be revealed on the evening of June 9, once polling stations have closed in all member countries. The voting is done by direct universal suffrage in a single ballot.
The number of members elected in each country depends on the size of the population. It ranges from six for Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus to 96 for Germany. In 2019, Europeans elected 751 lawmakers. Following the United Kingdom's departure from the EU in 2020, the number of MEPs fell to 705 with some of the 73 seats previously held by British MEPs redistributed to other member states.