European conservatives decisively beat socialists and the far-right made gains in EU elections marred by a record-low turnout, results showed yesterday, as the center-left failed to capitalize on recession woes.
The vote marks a painful defeat for the center-left and gains for parties both on the far-right and far-left, as well as anti-immigrant and euroskeptic movements who bolstered their presence in the European Parliament for the next five years.
Center-left parties in power in Britain, Spain and Portugal were punished by their electorates while their allies in opposition in Germany and France suffered brutal losses.
The center-right European People’s Party (EPP) secured 267 seats, confirming it once again as the biggest group in the 736-member assembly, ahead of the socialists on 159 seats, down from 215, official estimates showed.
The win came despite the desertion of the British and Czech conservatives.
The Liberal Democrats came in third with 81 seats followed by the Greens with 51 seats, up from 43, in the parliament — the EU’s only directly elected institution.
It remains unclear how closely the EPP and the Party of European Socialists will continue to work together.
Given their losses, the socialists might feel obliged to take a more left-leaning stance, opening the way for the liberals and others to work together with the conservatives.
Some 388 million people were eligible to vote in the polls in 27 EU countries, spread over four days.
Turnout slumped to 43.09 percent, down from 45.4 percent in 2004.
The extreme right-wing British National Party won its first two European Parliament seats, while Dutch anti-Islamic lawmaker Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom came second on Thursday with 17 percent of the vote.
“The turnout compared to 2004 shows that this is not the time for complacency,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, urging national governments to play a more visible EU role.
However, the center-right victory boosts Barroso’s chances of securing a second term at the helm of the EU executive arm when his mandate expires in November, although it remains to be seen whether the socialists will back him.
“It’s a sad evening for social democracy in Europe. We are particularly disappointed, [it is] a bitter evening for us,” said the head of the socialist bloc, German lawmaker Martin Schulz.
Embattled British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a new fight for his leadership yesterday after his Labour Party was mauled in the polls and the far-right won support.
Mutineers who seek Brown’s ouster are poised to decide whether to mount an attempt to depose the struggling leader after he holds a meeting with his lawmakers at the House of Commons.
“The message is clear: We need a complete change of political direction,” Labour lawmaker John McDonnell said of the worst results since 1910.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives came out on top, trouncing her center-left rivals in what was seen as a dry run for September’s general election.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party romped home with close to 28 percent, leaving the opposition Socialists trailing with just over 16 percent, about the same as the Greens.
Scandal-plagued Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party led with 34.7 percent, with more than three-quarters of polling stations counted — well below his target of 40 percent.
Support rose for the anti-immigrant Northern League.
Spain’s opposition conservatives beat the ruling Socialists, garnering 42.25 percent compared to 38.50 percent for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s party.
The Socialist party of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates also suffered a surprise defeat by the right-wing Social Democrats.
In Austria, the list of euroskeptic campaigner Hans-Peter Martin made major gains, while the ruling Social Democrats had their worst election debacle ever.
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