The starting gun has been fired on the next European parliamentary elections with more than 600 MEPs departing Strasbourg urged to use their “strength and patience” to fight the far right and disinformation and return a vote across the bloc for democracy.
There were flowers, tears and cheers on Thursday as Roberta Metsola, president of the European parliament, made her last address and MEPs raced back to their respective countries to launch a six-week campaign for re-election.
