The elections to the European Parliament are kicking off on Thursday with polling stations in the Netherlands opening their doors. Over the next three days, the other 26 member states will progressively follow suit, producing a cross-border democratic exercise that will culminate on Sunday night, when the picture of the new hemicycle is expected to emerge. The occasion comes at a precarious, uncertain time for the bloc, which in the span of a few years has been hit with back-to-back, make-or-break crises that have profoundly reshaped its policies, defied its old-age beliefs and deepened its ex…