In Eastern Europe, voters in Eastern Europe delivered a surprise - right-wing parties won far fewer votes for the European Parliament
Kyiv • UNN
Right-wing parties made less progress than expected in the European Parliament elections in Eastern Europe: Orbán's party lost ground in Hungary, Kaczynski's PiS came second in Poland, and SMER-SD lost first place in Slovakia.
Extreme right-wing parties achieved less success in the European Parliament elections in Eastern Europe: in Hungary, Orbán's party lost a significant share of the vote; in Poland, Kaczynski's PiS (Law and Justice), contrary to predictions, settled for second place; and SMER-SD, the party of the head of the Slovak government, lost the first place. This was reported by UNN with reference to DW, Deník N and Radio Prague.
Details
In Eastern European countries, the European Parliament elections are over, the votes are almost counted - as it turns out, the situation in the eastern part of the European Union is different from the current preferences of voters in Western Europe. In countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, extreme right-wing parties lost votes in the European Parliament elections.
Hungary
Orbán's party lost a significant share of the electoral vote for the first time in many years. The young Respect and Freedom Party (Tisza), led by lawyer Peter Magyar, has become the main opposition force. And Magyar has made no secret of the fact that he intends to fight Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz leadership.
This did not prevent Orbán from claiming victory over the old and new opposition. By contrast, however, Peter Magyar promised a change of power in the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2026 and declared, “Everything is just beginning!”
Poland
In Poland, the ruling coalition of parties led by Donald Tusk took first place.
"Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice (PiS), which governed the country from 2015 to 2023, remains a political force - it won 36% of the vote, but it is not first place.
PiS leader Kaczynski was aggressive and called the election results “a big challenge,” DW writes. In turn, Poland's current Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised that in “the coming months, Poland will decide how Europe will look like”.
Slovakia
The left-social-liberal Progressive Slovakia (PS) party received 28%, ahead of the right-wing nationalist party Direction - Social Democracy (SMER-SD) of Prime Minister Robert Fico, recently wounded in an assassination attempt.
In this regard, Fitzo accused the opposition of being responsible for the attack because it was spreading convoluted far-right conspiracy theories.
In Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria far-right parties failed to make a breakthrough - ruling parties and alliances that represent pro-European and at the same time conservative-nationalist positions won in these countries, including the Social Democratic Party of Romania, which entered into an alliance with the National Liberal Party to participate in the European elections.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has supported the priorities of a significant proportion of voters from Western European countries. The rise of the far-right Prísaha a Motoristé (“Oath and Motorists”) coalition, led by former race car driver and scandal-monger Filip Turek, was confirmed in the Czech Republic in the current European Parliament elections.
His party won two seats in the European Parliament and became the third largest political force in the country, despite having no representatives in the Czech parliament. Turek, who is not shy about displaying Nazi symbols or signs of sympathy for neo-Nazi parties such as Greece's Golden Dawn, promised to travel to Strasbourg for the EP's first plenary session in a car with a “huge carbon footprint.
