EU voters close to Russia crave one thing above all

Mary Dejevsky travels to Finland, the Baltic states and Poland, where the issue of security is on everyone's mind

- Mary Dejevsky

Between now and tomorrow evening, several hundred million people will vote in elections for the next EU parliament, in what is billed as the second-largest exercise in representative democracy in the world after elections in India.

But the numbers actually voting have habitually been far fewer than in national elections, with turnout overall barely registering above 50 per cent, and a lot less in some countries, especially those further east.

There are hopes that this year could see that pattern change. The reason is that these are the first EU-wide elections to be held since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. And while the election agenda as seen from the western and southern parts of Europe has been dominated by hostility to migration and cost of living issues, with forecasts of gains for the far right, electoral concerns as seen from the northeast of the EU are different.

How different is what I have been trying to find out, travelling from Finland, through the Baltic states, to northeastern Poland. And here, while you will find a flicker of the same preoccupations that have dominated the campaigning further south and west, the big topic on what is essentially the European Union’s northeastern frontier is summed up in one word: security.

Five years ago, when EU parliament elections were last held, there was certainly far less urgency over the issue. Although there was a security aspect to the EU, it was seen as the responsibility of Nato, and attitudes to Nato diverged. Finland and Sweden were neutral; the Baltic states and Poland were impassioned Atlanticists, while Hungary stood out as a weak link. EU elections anyway largely reflected domestic issues.