Austria’s far-right Freedom party has controversially campaigned with posters portraying Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, embracing, with the slogan: “Stop EU madness.”

“It is like Peskov, when he has press conferences,” said Reinhold Lopatka, lead candidate for the Austrian People’s party, referring to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

“They are the voice of Putin here in Austria,” he said of the Freedom party.

Four parties in Austria have a “very clear position in favour of Ukraine” and “one party – very strong on the side of Russia,” he said.

The Freedom party’s lead candidate has been contacted for comment.

Reinhold Lopatka, lead candidate for the Austrian People’s party in the European election, told the Guardian that the issues of illegal migration, inflation and the war in Ukraine are dominating the campaign.

In a phone interview, Lopatka said that climate change has gotten less attention this time around. “It is still on the agenda, but it’s not topic number one, not number two, not number three – it is maybe number four or five.”

“This is the biggest difference to the last campaign. The last campaign was in a time when Fridays for Future reached the top of attention,” he said.

Asked about the Austrian public discussion’s focus on migration, Lopatka said:

The problem is that you have, each week, criminal cases like the stabbing of this policeman in Mannheim – and Austria is always in the media coverage very close to Germany.

If something is in Germany, it always reaches Austria. So all this with AfD, this far-right wing party, and all these discussions of remigration and all this, one or two days later we have the same discussion here in Vienna.”

The far-right, Lopatka said, has “simple answers” and the discussion on migration is “very emotional, not rational.”

The EU’s new migration and asylum pact is the “right step, in the right direction, a right move. But it took too much time, and now we have to do everything to fasten up, to not only to have the legal framework, but to use it for concrete actions,” he said.

He added:

This is the way how we try to keep voters on our side. Say, ‘yes, we have a problem. It’s a big problem, but we are working for a solution.’

And it is always my saying, the far-right wing parties, they don’t want the solution. They live from the problem. They get their support through the problem, so they are not interested in solving the problem. This is the big difference.

On Sunday, Austrians will vote to elect 20 members of the European parliament.

The far-right Freedom party is leading in opinion polls with around 29%.

It is followed by the Social Democratic party with about 22% and the Austrian People’s party with approximately 20%. NEOS is at about 10%.

On Wednesday afternoon, hours before Dutch polling stations opened, the far-right firebrand Geert Wilders – whose anti-Islam Freedom party (PVV) shocked Europe by finishing first in elections last November – was campaigning in The Hague’s market.

Surrounded by a mob of reporters seeking interviews and people demanding selfies, Wilders urged his supporters to vote, saying the election was “about asylum and national sovereignty. The coming days are crucial for the future of Europe.”

His remarks marked a departure from his usual anti-EU rhetoric. PVV has long called for a “Nexit” referendum on Dutch membership of the bloc, but had to drop that – and other – pledges in its recent agreement to form the next coalition government.

In the latest polls for the Netherlands’ 31 MEPs, PVV is predicted to go from one seat to eight, neck and neck with the Green-Left-Labour alliance led by the former commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, who is campaigning for a “free, sustainable, safe and democratic EU”.

Sermin Civi, 35, who came to the Netherlands from Turkey at one year old, was one of the crowd taking a selfie with Wilders, whom she said she admired for his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“What he says is true,” she said, “although he says it hard. It’s not about Moroccans and Turks who live here, but refugees. We work hard and we can’t even find a house. As he says, the country is full.”

Read the full story here, by Senay Boztas and Jon Henley.

Dutch voters are casting their ballots in the European election today.

Good morning and welcome back to the blog.

It’s the first day of the European elections, with Dutch voters going to the polls.

We will be delving into the latest in the Netherlands, and also looking at campaigns around the continent.

Stay tuned and send your comments to lili.bayer@theguardian.com.