Tall Ships Races with 50 classic vessels seek to draw attention to Baltic Sea's alarming condition

HELSINKI (AP) — Dozens of classic sailing vessels from 13 countries that are plying the Baltic Sea arrived in the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that began in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda in late June.

This year’s competition, with a total of 50 ships of different shapes and sizes, is themed around the alarming environmental status of the Baltic Sea, which is suffering from eutrophication — an excessive accumulation of nutrients that has led, among things, to the growth of harmful blue-green algae.

“The Baltic Sea isn't doing well,” said CEO Annamari Arrakoski-Engardt of the Finland-based John Nurminen Foundation that supports projects protecting the shallow sea’s marine environment.

“It suffers from eutrophication and nature loss that are accelerated by climate change. But it’s not yet too late to save the Baltic Sea and its heritage for the future generations,” she said.

The international charity sailing race is normally held every four years but returns to the Baltic Sea after a seven-year hiatus because the planned 2021 competition was canceled due to COVID-19.

According to co-organizer Sail Training International, the race aims to teach the young global crews group dynamics while training them to handle the impressive old-school sailing ships, including some that are over a hundred years old.

One of vessels, the naval training vessel Guayas, sailed to northern European waters from Ecuador in South America.

The 2024 competition sails between six Baltic Sea ports: Helsinki, Turku and Mariehamn in Finland, Tallinn in Estonia, Szczecin in Poland and Klaipeda in Lithuania.

Though a rather small sea internationally, the Baltic Sea is a major trade, passenger and military shipping route for the nine nations around it, including Russia, and has played a vital role in the history of northern Europe.

“Helsinki is a maritime city and the Baltic Sea has shaped our southern coast and the history” of Finland, Helsinki Mayor Juhana Vartiainen said at the official welcoming ceremony aboard the elegant Polish training ship Dar Młodzieży.

“Sea has always been of vital importance to our city’s trade and an important transport route out to the world” from the Nordic nation of 5.6 million, he said.

A change from previous Tall Ships Races is that Russian vessels have been banned from taking part after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Since Finland and Sweden joined NATO in 2023 and this year, respectively, Russia's key port of St. Petersburg and its Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad are completely surrounded by members of the Western military alliance.

The Tall Ships Races 2024 will end at the Polish seaport of Szczecin near the German border in early August.

The Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via AP)

The Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via AP)

Ecuadorian ship Guayas during the Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Aada Pet'j'/Lehtikuva via AP)

Polish ship Dar Mlodziezy during the opening day of the Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Aada Pet'j'/Lehtikuva via AP)

Ecuadorian ship Guayas during the opening day of the Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Aada Pet'j'/Lehtikuva via AP)

Polish ship Kapitan Glowacki during the opening day of the Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Aada Pet'j'/Lehtikuva via AP)

The Amerigo Vespucci, tall ship of the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci arrives in the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay, in Los Angeles, on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. The vessel will be docked in San Pedro through July 8 and the public can take free tours. (Brittany M. Solo/The Orange County Register via AP)

Polish ship Fryderyk Chopin during the opening day of the Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Aada Pet'j'/Lehtikuva via AP)

Polish ship Dar Mlodziezy (left) and Pogoria during the opening day of the Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Aada Pet'j'/Lehtikuva via AP)

PARIS (AP) — Voting has begun in mainland France on Sunday in pivotal runoff elections that could hand a historic victory to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its inward-looking, anti-immigrant vision — or produce a hung parliament and years of political deadlock.

French President Emmanuel Macron took a huge gamble in dissolving parliament and calling for the elections after his centrists were trounced in European elections on June 9.

The snap elections in this nuclear-armed nation will influence the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability, and they’re almost certain to undercut President Emmanuel Macron for the remaining three years of his presidency.

The first round on June 30 saw the largest gains ever for the anti-immigration, nationalist National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen.

A bit over 49 million people are registered to vote in the elections, which will determine which party controls the National Assembly, France's influential lower house of parliament, and who will be prime minister. If support is further eroded for Macron’s weak centrist majority, he will be forced to share power with parties opposed to most of his pro-business, pro-European Union policies.

Racism and antisemitism have marred the electoral campaign, along with Russian cybercampaigns, and more than 50 candidates reported being physically attacked — highly unusual for France. The government is deploying 30,000 police on voting day.

The heightened tensions come while France is celebrating a very special summer: Paris is about to host exceptionally ambitious Olympic Games, the national soccer team reached the semifinal of the Euro 2024 championship, and the Tour de France is racing around the country alongside the Olympic torch.

The elections wrap up Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) in mainland France and on the island of Corsica. Initial polling projections are expected Sunday night, with early official results expected late Sunday and early Monday.

Voters residing in the Americas and in France’s overseas territories of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and French Polynesia voted on Saturday.

The elections could leave France with its first far-right government since the Nazi occupation in World War II if the National Rally wins an absolute majority and its 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister. The party came out on top in the previous week's first-round voting, followed by a coalition of center-left, hard-left and Green parties, and Macron’s centrist alliance.

But the outcome remains highly uncertain. Polls between the two rounds suggest that the National Rally may win the most seats in the 577-seat National Assembly but fall short of the 289 seats needed for a majority. That would still make history, if a party with historic links to xenophobia and downplaying the Holocaust, and long seen as a pariah, becomes France’s biggest political force.

If it wins the majority, Macron would be forced to share power in an awkward arrangement known in France as "cohabitation."

Another possibility is that no party has a majority, resulting in a hung parliament. That could prompt Macron to pursue coalition negotiations with the center-left or name a technocratic government with no political affiliations.

Both would be unprecedented for modern France, and make it more difficult for the European Union’s No. 2 economy to make bold decisions on arming Ukraine, reforming labor laws or reducing its huge deficit. Financial markets have been jittery since Macron surprised even his closest allies in June by announcing snap elections after the National Rally won the most seats for France in European Parliament elections.

Regardless of what happens, Macron said he won’t step down and will stay president until his term ends in 2027.

Many French voters, especially in small towns and rural areas, are frustrated with low incomes and a Paris political leadership seen as elitist and unconcerned with workers' day-to-day struggles. National Rally has connected with those voters, often by blaming immigration for France's problems, and has built up broad and deep support over the past decade.

Le Pen has softened many of the party's positions — she no longer calls for quitting NATO and the EU — to make it more electable. But the party’s core far-right values remain. It wants a referendum on whether being born in France is enough to merit citizenship, to curb rights of dual citizens, and give police more freedom to use weapons.

Surk reported from Nice, France.

Follow AP’s global election coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/global-elections/

A woman casts her ballot in the second round of the legislative elections, Sunday, July 7, 2024 in Strasbourg, eastern France. France votes Sunday in pivotal runoff elections that could hand a historic victory to Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally and its inward-looking, anti-immigrant vision — or produce a hung parliament and years of political deadlock. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

Local city officials prepare voting kits for the legislative election in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Saturday, July 6, 2024. Voters face a decisive choice in the runoff Sunday of snap parliamentary elections that could produce the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

Local city officials prepare voting kits for the legislative election in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Saturday, July 6, 2024. Voters face a decisive choice in the runoff Sunday of snap parliamentary elections that could produce the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron reacts as he delivers a speech, Wednesday, June 12, 2024 in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron's expected political failure in decisive parliamentary elections Sunday may paralyze the country, weaken him abroad and overshadow his legacy, just as France is about to be in the global spotlight as host of the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE - Far-right National Rally party president Jordan Bardella, right, leaves with far-right leader Marine Le Pen after a press conference, Monday, June 24, 2024 in Paris. Both Le Pen and Bardella have made clear that, in power, they would seek to rein-in Macron and exert themselves in defense, European and foreign affairs decision-making. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)