Slovakia on Saturday kicks off the final two days of voting in EU-wide elections, under the shadow of last month's shooting of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Another violent incident occurred late on Friday when a man hit Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a Copenhagen square.
The motive for the assault on Frederiksen was not immediately known. Police arrested the man but gave few immediate details about what happened.
The May 15 assassination attempt on Slovakia's populist premier Fico by a 71- year-old poet rocked his nation of 5.4 million and spread shockwaves across the EU.
Hours after polls open in Slovakia, attention will shift to Italy when its
own voting stations open. Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is hoping a strong showing from her party will strengthen her hand as a key EU powerbroker.
Most of the EU's 27 countries -- including biggest economies Germany and France, as well as Denmark -- will hold their votes for the transnational European Parliament on Sunday.
Since the attack last month on Fico, his left-wing populist Smer-SD party has skyrocketed past its main liberal rival to the top of the polls ahead of the vote in Slovakia.
Hours before the country entered a pre-election media moratorium on
Wednesday, a visibly thinner Fico published a video message describing his attacker as "an activist of the Slovak opposition".
"This opposition was unable to assess where its aggressive and hateful politics had led a section of society, and it was only a matter of time before a tragedy would occur," the four-time PM said in the 14-minute video.
Smer has used the attack in its campaign events, which were run under the slogan "For Robert Fico, for Slovakia".
The party opposes EU arms deliveries to Ukraine, calling itself a "party of peace" and railing against alleged "warmongers" in Brussels.
It remains to be seen if the groundswell of opinion after Fico's shooting translates into higher turnout, with just 22 percent of Slovakians voting at the last EU parliament elections in 2019.
- Meloni the queenmaker? - While the dramatic backdrop to Slovakia's vote has increased interest, the ballot in Italy starting the same day looks like it will have far more impact on determining the future course of the EU. Polls suggest Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia party looks set to claim 27 percent of the vote, equalling 22 seats, amid a broader surge of far-right groups across the EU.
That could make her a potential kingmaker -- or more appropriately,
queenmaker -- as her backing could be crucial in deciding if current conservative European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen earns a second term.
In the run-up to the election, Meloni has been courted by centre-right von der Leyen and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Le Pen, whose National Rally is topping the polls in France, harbours hopes of linking up with Meloni after the election in a bid to coral the fractious extreme right into a new supergroup at the EU parliament. For the time being, the Italian leader is playing her cards close to her chest.
But she has said her goal is to send all of the EU's left-wing parties into opposition.
The outsized influence of Meloni's party is all the more striking given that during the last EU polls in 2019 it won just 6.4 percent of the vote and six 0seats.
On the domestic stage, a commanding performance could help further tighten
