Euobserver.com

Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans looks like the big winner in the first exit poll from the 2019 European Parliament election. British voters also cast their ballots amid predictions their prime minister is about to fall.

Finland's Greens are set to become the country's second-largest party in Sunday's European Parliament elections winning 17.2 percent of the votes, up 7.9 percent from previous European elections in 2014, according to an Yle poll. Finlands National Coalition Party (NCP) would remain the biggest party, despite losing 2.9 percent compared to 2014. The Finns Party was polled third, growing their share of the European vote by four percent.

Several Danish voting stations prolonged opening hours on Thursday to accommodate a larger-than-normal interest in postal voting ahead of EU elections. Thursday was the last day where it was possible to vote by post for both European and national elections (held on 5 June) at the same time. Citizen-initiated campaigning and a comic video seen by 1.7 million may also have boosted the turnout.

A mobile app aimed at informing citizens about the EU has so far been downloaded some 80,000 times. However, no data is kept on how often users opened the app after downloading it.

Irish polling stations opened at 7AM on Friday for local and European elections plus a referendum to change the constitution on divorce. Ireland elects 13 MEPs, two of them to take their seats only after Brexit. Results will be announced when polls close elsewhere in Europe on Sunday. The turnout in Irish EU elections five years ago was 52.4 percent, well above the EU average of 42.6 percent.

UK prime minister Theresa May is set to announce her resignation on Friday, UK media reports. May will remain prime minister during a leadership election lasting about six weeks and may also try to get her Brexit deal passed by parliament during those last weeks in office. The resignation plan would clear the way for the UK to have a new Conservative prime minister installed by the end of July.

A group of 70 leading EU figures on Thursday published a joint call for a "gender-balanced" leadership of the European Union as voters head to the polls. There has never been a female president of the European Commission or the European Council. The group included former prime ministers, artists, candidates for the job as well as Federica Mogherini, the EU's current foreign commissioner and highest-placed woman.

The debate about the choice of name should not boil down to a political muscle show against Hungary, which opposes the reference to Magnitsky because of its political relations with the Russian government.

Hundreds of EU citizens have been turned away from polling stations in Britain at the European elections on Thursday, an organisation representing EU citizens in Britain, the3million, said in a statement calling for an investigation. "These European elections are significant ... as this might potentially be the last nationwide vote before our voting rights will be downgraded to potholes and bin collections in local election," it added.

Political opposition will make it all but impossible for the Swiss government to sign a draft treaty with the EU next month, Reuters reported Thursday. The lack of such a deal will upset relations between non-EU Switzerland and the EU, potentially disrupting trade. The Swiss government is locked in a fight with the far-right over freedom of movement for EU citizens, to be voted on a referendum next year.

Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary sacked by prime minister Theresa May this month for leaking national security discussions, on Thursday endorsed Boris Johnson to replace May. His backing came as May met with senior ministers, amid growing Conservative calls for her immediate resignation over her failure to pass any version of her Brexit withdrawal agreement. European Parliament elections were ongoing in the UK on Thursday.

By 1.30PM on Thursday, around 14 percent of eligible Dutch voters had cast their ballot in the European Parliament elections, according to pollster Ipsos. That is slightly lower than the 15-percent turnout figure at the same time 2014, when the final turnout in the Netherlands was 37 percent. Dutch voters have until 9PM to vote, around which time an exit poll with preliminary results will be published.

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on Wednesday reported that Hungary's Fidesz Party paid some €150,000 to a Belgian politician as part of a wider effort to weaken a probe by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe. The money went to a private company managed by former Belgian senator Stef Goris, who used it to conduct "dubious" studies.

Polling booths have opened in the UK for EU elections, with voters not knowing if Brexit will happen, if they have a prime minister, or caring that much who their MEPs will be.

Dutch voters are not interested in a 'Nexit', according to polls, but prime minister Mark Rutte warned against a Dutch EU exit on the night before the EU elections at a debate with a new anti-EU kid on the block.

An Austrian criminal intelligence service persuaded Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini to set up a unit in Sicily against migrant smuggling, while in Senegal EU development money is financing an European-police led reform of Dakar's defence and interior ministries.

"If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!", US president Donald Trump tweeted on Monday (20 May).

Danish voters are posed to send six MEPs into the liberal Alde group in the European parliament following elections on Sunday, (26 May), according to a survey from Epinion. Currently, there are three Danish members in the group from two pro-EU parties. The Danish People's Party, set to join Matteo Salvini's group, will lose one seat, while the Social Democrats will get four MEPs. Denmark elects 13 MEPs.

Voters in the world's second-biggest election, the European Parliament ballot, will know before midnight on Sunday to what extent a foretold far-right surge has come to be.

The Dutch government must "make every effort" that new EU sanctions on human-rights abusers will be named after Russian activist Sergei Magnitsky, Dutch MPs have said.