Apathy and poll predictions of fringe and far-right parties doing well continue to dominate the story of the June 2009 European Parliament elections – or May 29 2009 elections, if you are Estonian and took the opportunity to become one of the first to cast an e-vote.

Estonia, which with a population of 1.4 million is among the smallest of the 27 EU member states, will elect six of the 736 MEPs which the EU’s 375 million voters will be choosing.

It remains to be seen whether internet voting will boost poor turnout in the country, Euractiv.com said.

Euronews said that only eight per cent of the Portuguese knew that the country was meant to go to the polls in the European Parliament elections on June 7, and turnout is being predicted to reach only 24 per cent.

In Portugal, the ruling socialists were tipped to take 39 per cent and the opposition conservative social democratics 36 per cent.
Elsewhere, parties in opposition were said to be placed to outdo parties currently in national government.

In Greece, where apathy among voters is also a concern, a Public Issue poll published on May 26 2009 said that the opposition socialist party Pasok had a 4.5 per cent lead over the governing New Democracy party, although this was down from six per cent on May 24.

A continuing theme is the number of predictions in individual countries that radical far-right parties could make gains. Some reports have suggested that far-right, fringe and single-issue parties collectively could take up 150 of the 736 seats in the post-June 2009 European Parliament.
 
From Hungary, Javno said that the Jobbik ("For a Better Hungary") party would get at least one European Parliament seat, on the basis of a campaign drawing on discontent about the economic crisis and sentiment against Hungary’s Roma minority.
 
Jobbik says it wants to preserve Hungary's national heritage, to tie welfare benefits to workains and create a special police unit to tackle "Gypsy crime". It backs the Hungarian Guard, a radical nationalist organisation which has been criticised for staging intimidating marches nationwide to protest against the spread of petty crime it says is mostly committed by Roma.

On the European stage, Jobbik seeks to renegotiate the part of the treaty that took Hungary into the European Union in 2004 that allows foreigners to buy land from 2011, Javno said.

It also backs controversial autonomy claims by ethnic Hungarians in other EU countries such as Romania and Slovakia.

In Slovakia, there has been controversy about a May 23 2009 statement by Viktor Orban, the leader of Hungary's Fidesz party, that the next set of Hungarian MEPs will represent the interests of "Hungarians from the Carpathian basin". Slovak prime minister Robert Fico has accused Orban of questioning the territorial integrity of Slovakia and Romania.
 
Politics.hu said that Orban had met German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on May 26 and discussed economic issues and preparations for the European Parliament elections.

Orban told reporters after their meeting that the European People's Party would again be the biggest group in the European Parliament, and would again nominate Jose Manuel Barroso as European Commission President.

From Prague, Ceske Noviny said that the right-wing Civic Democratic Party (ODS) would win the elections to the European Parliament in the Czech Republic by a one to four per cent lead if they were held now, according to the polls by the STEM and SC&C agencies for Czech Television.

The European Parliament election campaign in the Czech Republic made the news because of repeated incidents of eggs being thrown at social democrat leader Jiri Paroubek.

Paroubek has alleged that the ODS is behind the campaign and has requested police protection. In some cases, potential egg-throwers have been identified and removed from meetings, an easy matter in some cases because they were dressed as Martians.

A statement by the European Parliament said that although Europeans elect a common Parliament for Europe, and all elected members enjoy the same status, the elections themselves are organised by each EU country in line with its own electoral laws and traditions. This includes the exact day one which Europeans vote. There will be four days of voting.

On June 4, the Netherlands and the UK; on June 5, the Czech Republic (continues on June 6) and Ireland; on June 6, Cyprus, Italy (continues on June 7), Slovakia, Latvia and Malta; and on June 7, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

The election results will begin to be announced after the last polls close on June 7 and will be available on the European Parliament's website.