Government parties suffer in EU elections - Low turnouts across enlarged EU

Despite the recent expansion of the European Union, citizens across the Union appeared to take little interest in this first parliamentary election since Europe's "big boom" enlargement. On average, only 44.6% of eligible European voters turned up at their local polling stations to select the MEPs who will represent their countries. This was the first election for the ten member states that joined the EU last 1 May. Yet, the turnout was even lower in these states, averaging just 26.4%. The lowest turnout was in Slovakia, where fewer than 17% cast their votes.

Voters in 19 of the 25 EU nations cast ballots on Sunday 13 June, the fourth day of elections which had already seen the other six countries complete polling for the 732 seats in the enlarged European Parliament.

This voter apathy has caused anxiety in the European institutions. European Parliament spokesman David Harley said turnout was "pathetically low" for many of the new member states. Outgoing European Parliament President Pat Cox described the results as a "wake-up call" and warned European leaders that they had to demonstrate the EU's relevance to voters. "Regrettably, Europe is too absent from European elections in east and west," he said. "States need to engage, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, in voter education of EU institutions."

Two of the smallest EU members produced the highest turnouts. Malta saw 82% of its electorate vote, while Cyprus had a participation rate of 71.2%.

However, the generally low turnout was still enough to hand opposition parties victory after victory. With no overarching European issues, voters in many of the 25 EU states used the election to register dissatisfaction against ruling parties over issues from social system reforms to the Iraq war.

Among the countries where opposition parties made gains were France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands. In Ireland, Fianna Fáil took a hammering.

Also making gains were so-called "Eurosceptic" parties, particularly in Britain, where the UK Independence Party - which advocates Britain leaving the EU — came in third place.

Anti-EU parties also did well in Sweden, and in two of the new member states — Poland and the Czech Republic. EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg immediately after the elections to consider revisions to the draft EU constitution, aiming to make it more acceptable to the eurosceptics.

Germany's governing Social Democrats recorded their worst result since World War II. The party took just 21.5% of the vote, the Christian Democrats the clear winners with 44.5%.

In France, the Socialist opposition won a decisive victory over French President Jacques Chirac's conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which scored just 16.6 percent of the votes. The Socialists polled 28.9%, while the centre-right Union for French Democracy attracted about 12 percent of voters.

In Denmark, exit polls showed the opposition Social Democrats gaining 33.5% of the votes, as voters reacted against the policies of the conservative government of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose party lost about 5 points, down to 18.7%.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party dropped to 21% of the vote, compared with 29.4% in the 2001 general elections. But the blow was eased as the partners in his centre-right coalition made modest gains.

In Malta, the governing Nationalists have already conceded defeat to the opposition Workers' Party, which will get three seats in the European parliament, the remaining two going to the Nationalists.

In Cyprus, the left-leaning AKEL party won around 29% of the votes and two of the country's seats in parliament, while the opposition right-wing DISY got about 25% of the vote and two seats in Strasbourg. Despite Cypriot law requiring all eligible citizens to vote, turnout was also relatively low.

It was only in Greece and Spain that parties in government did well.

Greece's conservatives, leaded by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, scored 42.5% of the votes, close to 10 points more than the opposition socialist PASOK party.

In Spain, three months after its domestic parliamentary victory, the Socialist Party (PSOE), led by Prime Minister José Rodriguez Zapatero, won some 43.7%, while the conservative Popular Party took about 40.8 %.

The day's big surprise in Austria, however, was Hans-Peter Martin, an independent MP and anti-corruption campaigner, who won 14% of the votes and two seats for his list of independent candidates. In May, Martin created waves after accusing his colleagues in parliament of padding their expense reports and committing petty fraud.

Basque Country

HZ, the popular movement banned from presenting candidates to the European Parliament elections, obtained 10.8% of the votes in the Basque Country. HZ ballot papers were distributed to voters in the days before the Sunday 13 June election and were also made available via the Internet. Representatives of HZ were given accreditation by other political parties to attend the count, where the pro-independence group obtained 118,968 votes, which in official statistics will appear as spoiled -as the Spanish Government will not recognise them as valid.

The new European Parliament

The election result means that the European Parliament will be more polarised than ever, with a growing number of anti-EU parties, including far-right anti-immigrant members, pitted against the traditional pro-European parties on sensitive issues like the approval of a draft EU constitution.

How some of the newly elected MEPs will integrate in the different European Parliament groups is yet to be seen.

Overall, the European People's Party (EPP) — the grouping of centre-right parties — has the largest number of seats, followed by the centre-left European Socialist Party, which includes Britain's Labour Party and Schroeder's Social Democrats. The third-largest grouping is the Liberal Democrats, followed by the Greens and the left-wing European United Left group.

As Sinn Féin has yet to decide whether to join a grouping or to stay non-aligned in the European Parliament, it is provisionally categorised in the Others category.

Breakdown of the 732-seat European Parliament

Center-right European People's Party - 278

European Socialist Party - 199

European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party - 67

Greens - 41

European United Left - 39

Union for Europe of the Nations - 27

Europe of Democracies and Diversities - 15

Others - 66