Wait, all these people come from different countries. How do they understand each other?
Good question, two-part answer. The first part is translation. Europe has a huge budget for translation to help everyone understand each other, which means it has to give up other subtleties, like geopolitical power for example. The translators are paid generously by European taxpayers, so the 720 lawmakers from places like Slovenia and Portugal can understand each other when they get up to speak on what they call “bicycling.” That's why lawmakers wear headphones while someone else is speaking, because that's where the translation comes from.
Poll for the European Parliament elections from opinion polls
For more polling data from across Europe visit Politico Poll Poll.
The second part of the answer is a dirty little secret: everyone in the European Parliament speaks English in one form or another. In fact, the entire EU bureaucracy operates in English, although this is a specific dialect – call it European English – which is not American or British English but its own dialect, made up of 27 dialects thrown into a big melting pot. From time to time, the French try to rise up and change this, pointing out that 300 years ago, the lingua franca was French, and that Britain officially voted to leave the European Union in 2016. But guess what? Three hundred years ago, we all wore dried wigs and treated minor colds with bloodletting. European English is rampant and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
I got it. So when should I pay attention?
There's a lot going on. For example, von der Leyen is trying to build support for her second term, which means making sure she has enough support among political leaders and groups. If she is chosen by leaders, she will need the approval of a majority in parliament, which means building a coalition that supports her re-election. In doing so, von der Leyen reaches out not only to the Socialists, the Green Party and the Liberals, but also to the far-right party led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Von der Leyen is not the only one seeking Meloni's support. Thanks to the strength of right-wing parties across Europe, Meloni is in the position of somewhat of a kingmaker. She is coveted by far-right forces in Europe, who want to recruit her into their camp to form a kind of supergroup of right-wing parties that, if that happens, would be more like the Republican Party. In the United States, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen invited Meloni to join her far-right group.
In practice, elections take place over the weekend, from June 6 to June 9. Results will follow throughout the evening of June 9. And given the quirks of having 27 different electoral systems (ballots in Italy don't close until 11pm on June 11). For example, on 9 June), the final composition of the next EU Parliament will not be fully known until the morning of 10 June.
