Governments left reeling in apathy-clouded European polls

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The first elections for a newly enlarged EU parliament have
left governments reeling, as voters dealt ruling parties a
string of stunning defeats and stayed away from the polls in
record numbers.

Voters punished governments who supported the US-led invasion
of Iraq and painful economic reforms, while the electorate in
former communist eastern Europe showed no sympathy for
leaders who had guided them into the European Union just over
a month ago.

Turnout may have slumped to less than 45 percent — the
lowest since the first elections to the assembly in 1979 —
in the landmark EU-wide polls, the first since the bloc
expanded from 15 to 25 countries on May 1.

In a bitter disappointment for the EU’s executive arm,
projections showed barely one-in-four voters in the 10 new
states cast their ballots, a worrying sign that the idealism
of the historic enlargement is fast evaporating.

Eurosceptic parties opposed to the entire European project
were making considerable gains in the polls, which climaxed
on the fourth and final day Sunday with simultaneous voting
in 19 EU states. Six countries had voted over the three
previous days.

In Britain, the anti-EU UK Independence Party was projected
to make a dramatic breakthrough by taking as many as 17
seats, marking its arrival as a serious political force and a
new headache for Prime Minister Tony Blair.

German voters meanwhile handed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s
Social Democrats its worst-ever defeat in nationwide polls,
in a stinging rebuke for his painful reform agenda that the
party’s own chairman admitted was a "bitter result".

In France, the opposition Socialist party emerged as clear
winners over centre-right supporters of President Jacques
Chirac, while projections showed that Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party had failed to reach
its goal of 25 percent of the vote.

In Sweden, a new eurosceptic party — The June List — made a
surprisingly strong showing while the ruling Social Democrats
fell well below expectations.

"It is clear that the European elections are used as a
balance-sheet election," said Martin Schulz, head of the
German Social Democrats’ list competing for his country’s 99
seats, the biggest chunk in the parliament.

Spain’s new Socialist government were one of the few ruling
parties to outscore their rivals, along with Greece’s
conservatives who repeated their recent general election
success over the Socialists.

In the EU’s largest new member, the Polish opposition Civic
Platform crushed the ruling Democratic Alliance (SLD), which
was also lagging behind a radical peasants party with an
anti-EU platform.

A similar patten emerged in the Czech Republic, where the
eurosceptic opposition trounced the ruling Social Democrats.

Fears of a record low turnout were also confirmed, with the
dire participation rate in former communist countries which
liberated themselves from totalitarian rule just 15 years ago
triggering particular concern.

According to a projection by the Gallup polling institute,
only 44.6 percent of voters bothered to cast their ballots —
if confirmed, the lowest turnout since the first elections
for the EU assembly in 1979.

Turnout was lowest overall in the 10 EU newcomers that joined
on May 1, where an average of only 28.7 percent voted, while
47.7 percent of electors in the 15 old EU member states got
themselves to the polls, Gallup said.

"In the beginning, elections were something exciting and
exclusive after decades of communism but that enthusiasm is
wearing off," said political analyst Bohumil Dolezal in
Prague.

Echoing a widely held view, 27-year-old Margo Laas from
Estonia said: "I am sick of politics and I do not think that
the European Union will change anything."

Turnout was expected to be lowest in Poland, where President
Aleksander Kwasniewski went as far as to call the low
participation a "disease".

The bleak mood in Brussels was darkened further by the gains
of anti-EU parties, most notably in Britain, Poland, and
Sweden. "These people tend to be the wreckers, the ones who
are against finding solutions," said Graham Watson, the head
of the European Liberal Democrats bloc in the parliament.

Provisional figures showed the centre-right bloc in the
parliament — the European People’s Party (EPP) — retaining
its place as the largest group with 269 seats and the
European Socialists in second place with 199.

The EU Parliament, set up in 1979, has been hobbled by
widespread public perception that it is little more than a
debating body with little real powers and has been dogged by
frequent reports of corruption among its members.

But it has amassed considerable power in EU decision-making,
notably EU budget approval and influence over legislation on
trade, environment and consumer affairs.

And it will see its influence increase sharply if EU leaders
finally agree on the Union’s first constitution at a summit
Thursday and Friday.