European Parliamentary Elections Roundup

European voters punish the left

Published: 2009/06/07 23:26:37 GMT

Centre-right parties have done well in elections to the European Parliament at the expense of the left, according to exit polls and initial results.

The parliament's 736 seats are up for grabs. Preliminary figures suggest the lowest-ever turnout, at 43.39%.

BBC correspondents say the figures will dent the EU's credibility.

Centre-left parties are projected to have lost almost a quarter of their seats, while the centre-right is only slightly down.

Some smaller groupings such as the Greens have gained ground, while the third largest group in the parliament, the Liberals, lost seats.

The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Brussels says it looks as if the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) will continue to hold power in the parliament.

Jose Manuel Barroso, who seems set for a second term as European Commission president following the centre-right success, thanked voters and assured them their voices would be heard.

"Overall, the results are an undeniable victory for those parties and candidates that support the European project and want to see the European Union delivering policy responses to their everyday concerns," he said.

Socialist leader Martin Schulz said his group's defeat would be analysed.

"It's a sad evening for social democracy in Europe. We are particularly disappointed, [it is] a bitter evening for us," he said.

Government defeats

Fringe groups appear to have benefited, with far-right parties picking up seats in the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The British National Party won its first UK seat.

Several governments battling the economic downturn look set for a heavy defeat, says the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels.

However, governing parties in France and Germany appear to have done relatively well despite the crisis. In partial results so far:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP trounced socialist opponents, while greens from the Europe-Ecologie party also made gains

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing centre-right grouping lost ground but finished ahead of its rivals

In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition is ahead of the socialist opposition, with between 39% and 43% of the vote, exit polls suggested. The Italian group may be the largest within the EPP

In the UK, the governing Labour Party is expecting a serious defeat, slipping to at least third place

Spain's governing Socialists were slightly behind the opposition Popular Party, according to partial results

Poland's governing centre-right Civic Platform has gained ground at the expense of the Eurosceptic Law and Justice Party

Voters have been choosing representatives mainly from their own national parties, many of which then join EU-wide groupings with similarly-minded parties from other countries.

The largest grouping has for the last five years been the centre-right EPP (288 seats out of a current 785), followed by the centre-left PES (216) and the liberal ALDE (100).

Provisional figures released by the EU suggested turnout was at an all-time low in some countries, including France (40.5%) and Germany (42.2%).

In Malta, on the other hand, it was expected to near 80%, and in Brussels, there were long queues outside a polling station on the Grand Place on Sunday.

Turnout has fallen at each European election in the last 30 years, from nearly 62% in 1979 to 45.47% in 2004.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8088309.stm

AUSTRIAAustrian eurosceptic Martin scores big in European electionAn indefatigable denouncer of scandals, Martin won 17.9 percent of votes, just behind the ruling conservatives and Social Democrats to get a third term in the parliament he loves to hate.

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Vienna -- With an Austrian tabloid for support but no party machine behind him, Hans-Peter Martin will take a growing band of eurosceptics to the European Parliament.

An indefatigable denouncer of scandals, Martin won 17.9 percent of votes, just behind the ruling conservatives and Social Democrats -- and ahead of the far-right Freedom Party of Heinz-Christian Strache, a young firebrand sceptic -- to get a third term in the parliament he loves to hate.

His score was 3.9 percent up from the 2004 election and Martin will this time lead three deputies to the parliament.

First elected in 1999 as a Social Democrat, Hans-Peter Martin, or HPM to his fans, was re-elected in 2004 as an independent before heading the Hans-Peter Martin list this time around.

A eurosceptic to the bone, Martin has campaigned against powerful lobbies, power-grabbing elites and wasteful European institutions, while positioning himself as a defender of the people and an alternative to the far-right.

Denouncing "in-bred Brussels", the 51-year-old Martin, who hails from the western town of Bregenz, has appealed especially to Austrians' fear of losing their identity in the European wilderness.

He has opposed the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty and Turkey's entry into the European Union, calling for EU-wide referendums on the topics, and has offered to use some of his EU money to help young people find jobs and support others "hit by the economic crisis".

A former journalist for the German weekly Der Spiegel, working as a correspondent in Latin America and later heading the Vienna bureau, Martin has received tremendous media backing, especially from Kronen Zeitung, the most widely read newspaper in Austria.

Already in 2004, after a dispute with the Social Democrats, Martin won 14 percent of the vote with the tabloid's help.

He was a regular feature of the newspaper in the run-up to Sunday's vote, with excerpts from his book, "The Europe trap" (Europafalle), printed every day in Kronen Zeitung.

Described by a former ally as "a mix between overconfidence and madness", Martin has made enemies in Brussels and Strasbourg, revealing details from confidential talks and publishing pictures made with a secret camera.

In 2007, he was also accused by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) of misuse of funds allocated to his office.

His answer was that this was simply an error of form. He was a victim of a "political intrigue," he said.

http://www.expatica.com/fr/news/local_news/Austrian-eurosceptic-Martin-scores-big-in-European-election--_53348.html

BALTICSOpposition and ethnic parties do well in the Baltics08.06.2009 09:32

Hardest hit was the Estonian government. The two parties in the ruling coalition headed by Andrus Ansip managed to secure just one seat each. Their bitter opponents in the Centre Party won two seats, while another opposition party, the Social Democrats, won another. But a surprise result saw independent candidate and part-time game show host Indrek Tarand win the one remaining seat of Estonia's six-seat allocation, thanks to big support from Estonia's "e-voters" casting their ballots via the internet. In Latvia, the Harmony Centre party which enjoys broad support from Latvia's large Russian minority did not manage to replicate its extremely strong showing in municipal elections. However, it will be satisfied with finishing second behind the newly-formed Civic Union party. Both parties secured two seats. The Civic Union will now send former EU commissioner Sandra Kalniete back to Brussels five years after she left. More controversially, the Harmony Centre's leading candidate was Alfreds Rubiks, the last leader of the Communist Party in Latvia when it was still part of the Soviet Union. Four smaller parties, including the New Era party of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis - himself an MEP until recently - will each claim a seat apiece. Among them is another pro-Russian party, For Human Rights In A United Latvia, which could gain a second seat if Latvia's allocation of seats is increased from eight to nine provided that Ireland ratifies the Lisbon Treaty, an official of the Latvian Central Electoral Commission explained. The Lithuanian government fared better than its counterparts in Estonia and Latvia. Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius will be pleased to secure four seats in the European Parliament out of a total of twelve for his Homeland Union - Christian Democrats. Less welcome to him will be a revival of fortunes for the Social Democratic party which he kicked out of power in a general election in late 2008. The Social Democrats bounced back by taking three seats followed by the Order and Justice party with two, according to preliminary data. The remaining three seats are likely to be shared between three other parties, the most notable of which is the Poles' Electoral Action party. Lithuania's Polish minority has never before had a representative in Brussels, but the unity of the Polish vote, combined with low turnout of around 21 per cent was enough to secure an historic first seat in Brussels.

http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/Default2.aspx?ArticleID=61c4f14d-06fd-48e6-b596-2640bd635659&ref=rss

BELGIUMRight-wing Flemish parties gain in regional Belgian electionsRightwing parties, seeking high autonomy for Flanders, came out ahead in Belgium's regional elections Sunday, complicating the already fraught relations between the francophone and Dutch-speaking communities.

BRUSSELS - Highlighting the diametrically opposed political paths, in French-speaking Wallonia to the south the Socialists ran out winners, despite substantial gains by the Greens.

Some 7.7 million Belgians, who are obliged by law to vote or face a fine, were being called to elect parliaments in Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and bilingual Brussels for five years.

Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy's CDV Christian Democrats won more than 23 percent of the vote in Flanders while its partners in the federal government coalition trailed with 15.3 percent for the Socialists and a fraction less for the liberals.

While the CDV has a place assured in the next regional Flemish government, the future of current coalition partners, the liberal Open VLD, was less certain after losing five percentage points for 15 percent of the vote.

However, other possible candidates, the pro-Flemish independence New Flemish Alliance NVA and the extreme right Vlaams Belang, could make for tricky coalition partners despite strong showings.

Their ascent will likely complicate the CDV's efforts to negotiate with Francophone parties in Wallonia on prickly reforms of the state, which most Flemish parties want to lead to greater devolution of powers.

Fearing a "radicalisation" among the Flemish, the head of the French-speaking Socialists Elio Di Rupo called for a "minimum of stability" within Belgium's federal coalition government, to which his party currently belongs.

Although polls had predicted a painful setback for the Francophone Socialists after recent scandals, the party only lost slightly more than four percentage points with 32.8 percent of the vote, according to provisional results.

The result put the party ahead of the liberal Reform Movement in Wallonia as it failed to capitalise on the scandals dogging the Socialists

http://www.expatica.com/be/news/local_news/Right_wing-Flemish-parties-gain-in-regional-Belgian-elections-_53357.html

BULGARIABulgarian centre-right party ahead in EU vote: exit polls

07 June 2009, 21:31 CET

— filed under: European Parliament, Bulgaria

(SOFIA) - Bulgaria's centre-right GERB party defeated the ruling Socialists of Premier Sergey Stanishev in Sunday's European election, according to exit polls released after voting closed.

The figures, released at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) by the Alpha Research, Sova Harris, Gallup and the state NCIOM polling institutes, showed the GERB party of Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov winning between 25.5 and 26.5 percent of the vote to boost the ranks of the European People's Party.

It was followed by the ruling Bulgarian Socialist party with between 19.5 and 20 percent of the vote.

The liberal Turkish minority MRF party scooped support from between 13 and 14.1 percent of all voters, followed by the ultra-nationalist Ataka party of firebrand Volen Siderov with between 10 and 12 percent of support.

The Blue Coalition of the small UDF and DSB right-wing parties garnered between 7.7 and 8.4 percent, pollsters said.

The liberal NMSP party of former king Simeon II won between 6.6 and 7.3 percent of the votes, probably giving its top-listed candidate -- European Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva -- a seat in the next EU Parliament.

Alpha Research, the only polling institute to give a breakdown of seats, predicted five for GERB and four for the Socialists, followed by the Turkish minority party with three seats, Ataka and the Blue coalition with two seats each, and the NMSP with one seat.

Turnout was between 25 and 36 percent, compared to 28.6 percent in 2007 when Bulgaria first elected deputies for the European Parliament, upon joining the EU, the institutes said.

The central electoral committee recorded an official turnout of 28.3 percent by 5:00 pm (1400 GMT).

Some 6.7 million Bulgarians were eligible to choose Bulgaria's 17 deputies to the European legislature in a vote seen as a litmus test for the country's parliamentary elections in four weeks.

The first partial official results of the vote will be released after 23:00 pm (2000 GMT) Sunday when voting concludes across all EU member states

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1244394123.11

CZECH REPUBLICCentre-right wins in the Czech Republic

By Andrew Gardner

08.06.2009 / 00:30 CET

Ousted governing party secures early revenge over Social Democrats.

The Civic Democrats (ODS) have bounced back from being removed from government in March to claim victory in the Czech Republic's elections to the European Parliament. 

The ODS, which is led by Mirek Topolánek, the ousted prime minister, emerged with an eight-point lead over the Social Democrats – with 30.8% of the vote, compared with 22.9% – after a heated campaign, during which Jiří Paroubek, the leader of the Social Democrats, accused the ODS of being behind a concerted campaign of egg-throwing at the party's rallies. 

But the Social Democrats' defeat was made a little less bitter by an increase in their representation in the European Parliament. A disastrous 8.8% of the vote in 2004 meant the party had just two seats in the old assembly; it will now have seven. 

The ODS will retain nine seats.  

The Communist Party, unreformed since 1989, saw its vote drop from 20.3% to 14.5% and therefore lost two seats.  

The Christian Democrats gained a second seat, despite seeing their share of the vote drop from 9.6% to 7.8%.  The reason was a consolidation of the political scene, with the elections resulting in the ejection of one party – the SNK European Democrats, which had three members – and two independents from the Parliament. 

In one of the most important results of the night for domestic politics, the Greens – until recently a member of the governing coalition – fell far short of the 5% needed to enter the Parliament, gaining just 1.6% of the vote. That result, however, will have no impact on the composition of the Czech delegation in the European Parliament, as the Greens failed to win a seat in 2004.

http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2009/06/centre-right-wins-in-the-czech-republic/65107.aspx

CYPRUSCyprus opposition scores victory in European vote

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:41:39 GMT

Athens/Nicosia - The main opposition centre-right party DISY polled most votes in the European election in the Republic of Cyprus on Sunday, indicating that optimism was flagging over renewed efforts to reunite the Mediterranean island. The conservative party won 35.65 per cent of the vote, earning two seats in the European Parliament while the ruling left-wing AKEL party received 34.90 per cent, to also win two seats.

Both rivals won the same number of seats as in the previous European Parliament elections in 2004.

The centrist DIKO party earned 12.28 per cent and one seat in the European Parliament as did the Socialist EDEK party, with 9.85 per cent.

Officials expressed disappointment that voter turnout was less than in 2004 with just 60 per cent of Cypriots casting ballots compared to 72.5 per cent for the previous poll.

The European election took place only in the internationally- recognised Republic of Cyprus, because the Turkish-controlled north is not a member of the European Union.

The island's reunification had been a major-campaign issue amongst Cyprus' two main parties. The two have been attacking each other on their differing views on the Cyprus problem, where progress on the issue is intertwined with Turkey's EU membership bid.

Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias, leader of the communist rooted AKEL party, came to power in February 2008, promising to reinvigorate the divided island's stalled peace process.

Christofias has had dozens of meeting with his Turkish-Cypriot counterpart Mehmet Ali Talat, but progress remains slow.

Despite renewed efforts to solve the problem, EU diplomats say that the ongoing conflict over Cyprus has become the bloc's single biggest problem in two key areas: It is troubling Turkey's bid to join the EU and it is complicating the bloc's relationship with Europe's premier military power, NATO.

The Mediterranean island has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974 sparked by a brief Greek-inspired coup. Greek Cypriots have lived in the south of Cyprus and Turkish Cypriots in the north, split by a United Nations-supervised buffer zone which runs through the heart of the island's capital Nicosia.

The 35-year conflict continues to pose a headache for diplomats, most recently in 2004, when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN settlement blueprint a week before the island joined the EU as a divided state.

Both ethnic communities agree, on paper, to rejoining the island as a bizonal and bicommunal federation, but disagree on how it will work.

EU officials have said that progress in the Cyprus reunification talks will be essential to move Turkey's slow-moving EU accession process forward.

Turkey refuses to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, even though it is itself a candidate to join the club of which the republic is now a member. It has also refused to open its ports and airports to Greek- Cypriot ships and planes.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/272159,cyprus-opposition-scores-victory-in-european-vote.html

DENMARKRight, left advance in EU vote MONDAY, 08 JUNE 2009 09:08 KM NEWS

Euro-sceptic Danish People’s Party posted the biggest gain in the Danish vote in Sunday’s European election

Sunday’s election to the European Parliament turned into a victory for the two parties that performed best in the 2007 general election.

The Danish People’s Party and the Socialist People’s Party each picked up an extra seat and are the only parties to add representatives in Brussels after an election that saw the number of seats held by Denmark in the 736-member parliament reduced by one to 13 as a result of EU expansion.

The right of centre Danish People’s Party, third largest in the national parliament, and which ran on a platform of ‘Give Us Denmark Back’ posted an 8.5 percent advance – the largest of any party – and now has two MEPs.

Party leader Pia Kjærsgaard credited the party’s long-time Euro-scepticism for the gain. ‘We haven’t just realised that Danes are sceptical of the EU,’ she said.

The Socialist People’s Party, riding on a wave of popularity after the last general election, which saw it surge to become the national parliament’s fourth largest party also added an additional representative. Due to a vote sharing arrangement with the Social Liberals, it ends with a total of three seats. The party’s 7.9 percent electoral gain was second only to the Danish People’s Party.

Despite losing a seat, the Social Democrats held on to their top position with four MEPs and 21 percent of the vote. Hit hard by the decision by former PM Poul Nyrup Rasmussen not to seek re-election to the European Parliament, the party shed 11 percent of its support as part of an overall European bloodbath for the Social Democrats.

Three parties came away from yesterday’s election with no seats. The Social Liberals and the June Movement both lost their representatives, while the Liberal Alliance, participating in its first European election, drew just 0.6 percent, the smallest number of votes of any party.

Yesterday’s biggest surprise, however, turned out to be the voter turnout. Some 55.4 percent of the electorate cast a ballot, beating the previous record, set during the 2004 European election, by 2.5 percentage points.

While elections to the national parliament normally draw a voter turnout of over 90 percent, participation in European elections averages less than 50 percent. Yesterday’s high voter turnout was due in part to a referendum on the royal line of succession being held on the same day.

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/politics/90-politics/45874-right-left-advance-in-eu-vote.html

FINLAND

Populist candidates win in Finland

2009-06-08 04:36 AM

Finnish anti-EU candidate Timo Soini is the big winner in the Nordic country's European Parliament elections with 130,000 votes after all votes have been counted.

Election officials say it is 50,000 more votes than for second-place Center Party candidate, former Prime Minister Anneli Jaatteenmaki, who returns to the European Parliament for another term with 80,000 votes.

Populist candidate Miter Repo, an Orthodox priest who was defrocked for the campaign, won the third most votes on a Social Democratic ticket.

The center-right government coalition partners, the Conservatives and the center Party, and the main opposition Social Democrats lost support in the election for Finland's 13 seats in the European assembly

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=970425&lang=eng_news

FRANCESarkozy's party trounces Socialists in EU vote: estimates

07 June 2009, 21:12 CET

— filed under: France, European Parliament

(PARIS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's rightwing UMP party romped home Sunday in EU parliamentary ballots, leaving the opposition Socialists trailing in a vote marked by voter apathy, estimates said.

Mirroring victories for conservative parties in much of Europe, the UMP took around 28 percent of the vote, while the Socialists were second with 17, just ahead of greens Europe-Ecologie at 14 percent, according to polling agencies.

The centrist Modem party of Francois Bayrou, the "third man" in France's last presidential vote, took just 9 percent, far less than expected and potentially damaging for his ambition to run against Sarkozy in 2012.

Turnout among France's 44 million voters, who will send 72 deputies to the European Parliament, was around 40 percent.

Outside the main parties, the far-left New Anti-capitalist Party of Olivier Besancenot took five percent, and another far-left group led by dissident Socialist Jean-Luc Melenchon took around six percent.

Jean-Marie Le Pen's xenophobic National Front took seven percent.

The campaign was a mostly lacklustre affair, with the most heated moment coming last Thursday when an ugly debate erupted among political chieftains who traded bitter insults during a televised debate.

Bayrou accused Green flag-bearer Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who as "Danny the Red" was a radical student leader in May 1968, of defending paedophilia and being a friend of Sarkozy.

Cohn-Bendit retorted: "You'll never be president, because you're pathetic."

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1244398621.28

GERMANY07.06.2009

Conservatives emerge on top in Germany's EU vote

 

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have emerged as the strongest party in Sunday's exit polls. According to first estimates, the CDU took 38.8 percent. The Social Democrats SPD came in second with 20.8 percent.

 

The results of European Parliamentary elections in Germany were not unexpected although they were certainly disappointing for the two major parties that form the current Grand Coalition government in Berlin. The conservatives dropped six percentage points, while the socialists hit all new all time low.

 

Chancellor Merkel's conservative CDU came in first with 38.8 percent of the votes but suffered substantial losses compared to the 2004 result of 44.5 percent.

 

Despite the negative trend, CDU General Secretary Ronald Pofalla said his party was satisfied with the results.

 

"We will be able to build on these results in preparation for national elections in September. We have achieved our mission: the CDU is by far the strongest political party in Germany."

 

EU polls seen as a test for German national elections

 

The Social Democrats SPD fared worse than expected, falling to 20.8 percent from 21.5 percent in 2004 according to first forecasts released by German public television. The party's poor result will prompt searching questions ahead of September's general election, in which both CDU and SPD have hoped to seek new alternatives to their current uneasy grand coalition.

 

"It is a disappointing result; there is no other way of putting it," said German Vice-Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the SPD's candidate to challenge Angela Merkel. 

 

The liberal FDP is expected to bring in its best result so far in European polls with almost 11 percent. The Greens managed an equally strong result with around 12 percent, in line with their previous share of seats in Europe. 

 

One party that was closely watched in Germany was the Left. The follow-on party of the former mostly east German far-left PDS, the Left party will enter the European parliament with 7.6 percent of the vote, a better showing than last time, but not as high as had been predicted by some analysts. The Left had hoped to benefit more from voter dissatisfaction with the government’s attempts to deal with the economic crisis that has seen unemployment in Germany rise.

 

Campaigns dominated by national, not European issues

 

None of the remaining smaller parties managed to gather enough votes for a ticket to the European Parliament. The EU vote is seen as a crucial test for German national elections in September.

 

Leading into Sunday's election, voter turnout had been expected to be at a record low. First estimates said that 42.5 percent of eligible German voters cast their ballots, down from 43 percent in 2004.

 

With its 99 seats, out of a total of 736, Germany has the largest contingent of deputies in the European Parliament.

 

Election campaigns in Germany had been dominated by national issues and the struggle against the global recession. The decision to bail out General Motors’ German subsidiary Opel was seen by many analysts as heavily influenced by the desire to win over votes.

 

The debate on whether Turkey should be accepted as an EU member candidate was another of the few European issues discussed ahead of the vote.

 

Conservatives remain strong across the EU

 

As the numbers started to come in on Sunday night, it soon became clear that conservatives in the European Parliament were not being held accountable for the economic crisis.

 

It was an historically low turnout with only 43 percent of those eligible to vote making their way to the polls.

 

When the final numbers are counted, the European People's Party (EPP), a collection of center-right conservatives will maintain its dominant position in the European Parliament with anywhere from 263-273 seats according to early results.

 

"I don't expect any major difficulties in decision-making. The composition of this parliament will not be significantly different from the previous one. Decisions on major issues were adopted in most cases by solid majorities," said European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

 

After four days of elections across the 27 member European Union, voters did punish some national governments, but in the end, socialists failed to capitalize on the perceived weakness of the conservatives.

 

In France, Europe's second largest economy, early numbers seemed to indicate that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement would win easily with 28.3 percent of the vote. The Socialists, badly divided because of a messy dispute between party head Martine Aubry and Segolene Royal, looked to have their worst day at the polls in recent memory, with a projected 17.5 share of the vote. They had been hoping for at lest 20 percent.

 

In Spain, the opposition conservatives scored a slim victory over the ruling Socialists according to partial official results. The polls were seen as a test for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero amid the recession.

 

In the Czech Republic, the parliament gave interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer's cabinet a vote of confidence. Fischer is running a caretaker government until the country’s next elections in October. The Czech Republic currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

 

Gains for the far right

 

Concerns that parties from both the extreme left and right would fair well have been partially confirmed.

 

In Austria, exit polls indicated that three eurosceptic movements, which included far-right parties, won approximately 36 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the anti-Islamic Freedom Party of Geert Wilders made impressive gains.

 

In Belgium, however, exit polls showed that the anti-immigrant, far-right Flemish Interest party had suffered its biggest setback in a quarter of a century in regional and European elections in Belgium. The ruling Christian Democratic CD&V look to emerge as the big winners with roughly 25 percent of the vote.

 

Exit polls in Greece projected that the Socialist PASOK party would be looking to seize power with approximately 37 percent of the vote. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis' governing conservatives could only muster 34 percent of the vote.

 

In Bulgaria, numbers from early exit polls indicated that the center-right GERB party was on its way to defeat Premier Sergey Stanishev's socialist ruling party.

 

In Luxembourg, Christian Democratic Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker seems to be on his way to another term.

 

Across the EU more than 375 million people were eligible to vote in the 27-nation bloc.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4309485,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

GREECEGreek ruling conservatives battered in EU vote: exit polls

07 June 2009, 21:32 CET

— filed under: Greece, European Parliament

(ATHENS) - Greece's ruling conservatives finished some six percentage points behind the opposition Socialists in the European election on Sunday, exit polls showed.

Battered by scandals, and amid a record-low turnout of 45 percent, the New Democracy party garnered between 30 and 33 percent, compared to 43.3 percent in the last EU elections in 2004.

The socialist PASOK party, led by George Papandreou, son of late prime minister Andreas Papandreou, mustered 36.3-39.5 percent.

"This is a message of dissatisfaction with the political system," said Environment Minister George Souflias, one of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis's closest advisors.

The government, which has a single-seat majority in parliament, has been struggling to assert itself for months amid mounting anger with its handling of a number of scandals which dominated the campaign trail.

"This government has no legitimacy," said Evangelos Venizelos, Pasok's unofficial number two cadre behind Papandreou.

The KKE Communists came third with 8.0-10 percent, staying within their 2004 margin.

The Laos nationalists and the Syriza leftists made gains compared to 2004. Laos pulled 5.3-7.0 percent compared to just 4.12 percent in the last election. Syriza tallied 4.3-7.2 percent compared to 4.16 last time.

The fledgling Green party scored 4.3-6.4 percent, failing to live up to pre-election opinion poll hype that forecast up to double-digit figures.

Greece elects 22 deputies to the European Parliament.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1244394130.56

HUNGARYEP results in; Fidesz dominates as Jobbik nears 15% of popular vote

June 07, 2009, 22:38 CET

The main opposition Fidesz party has won the European parliamentary elections in Hungary by winning 14 seats, the National Election Committee (OVB) said on Sunday, after 99.9 percent of the votes counted.

The ruling Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) won four seats, the radical nationalist Jobbik, a non-parliamentary force, three seats, and the conservative opposition Democratic Forum one seat, OVB head Emilia Rytko said.

Voters elected altogether 22 Hungarian deputies to the 736-member legislative assembly of the European Union.

Altogether 36.28 percent of eligible voters turned up for the elections in Hungary.

http://www.politics.hu/20090607/ep-results-in-fidesz-dominates-as-jobbik-nears-15-of-popular-vote

IRELANDIrish governing party faces heavy defeat

By John Murray Brown in Dublin

Published: June 6 2009 13:59 | Last updated: June 7 2009 23:53

Ireland’s Fianna Fáil party was braced on Sunday night for its worst-ever European parliament election results, as voters punished the government for its harsh economic reforms.

The party, which has been in power for 20 of the past 23 years, had already lost council seats across the country and failed to take either of the two parliamentary by-elections.

On Sunday night it looked possible it could lose its Dublin European seat to strongly anti-European parties. Exit polls suggested that the contest for that third Dublin seat was between Fianna Fáil, the small Irish Socialist party and Sinn Féin.

Brian Cowen, prime minister, said: “Sometimes in politics, when you take the necessary decisions, you have to put the country first even it means the short-term popularity of the party is affected.”

The lack of a European parliament representative for Dublin would be a symbolic blow to Fianna Fáil as the government prepares to restage a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, which Irish voters rejected last June.

On paper, Lisbon should pass, as all big parties in the Irish parliament except Sinn Féin are strongly in favour. With voters anxious not to alienate Europe further at a time when it needs the support of its EU partners to manage its economic crisis, a weekend poll suggested there was a clear majority – 54 per cent of those who said they intended to vote – now in favour of the treaty.

But analysts say there was a clear majority going into the last vote, yet the referendum was defeated by an opposition that mobilised concerns about Ireland’s perceived loss of influence, the threat to its conservative abortion laws and its low-tax business model.

Exit polls suggested Declan Ganley, leader of the Eurosceptic Libertas party and a main figure in last year’s referendum defeat, may just fail to take a European parliament seat in the North West constituency. He says he will not take a leading role in any rerun referendum if not elected.

The electoral setback for Fianna Fáil will see Fine Gael, the conservative opposition party, emerge as the largest party in local government. Analysts say if this local election result were repeated at a general election it would halve Fianna Fáil’s representation in parliament, the Dáil.

Enda Kenny, Fine Gael leader, has tabled a vote of no confidence in the government, to be debated in the Dáil on Tuesday. The Greens, Fianna Fail’s coalition partners, lost all their city and council seats in Dublin. Activists called for the party to reconsider its continued participation in government.

Ciaran Cuffe, a Green deputy, said the result “opens up the question of whether we should be in government”. Polls suggest almost two-thirds of Green voters want a general election this year.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/31d7c8dc-5297-11de-b986-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss

ITALYEuropean elections 2009: Silvio Berlusconi's centre-Right party wins in Italy

 

By Nick Squires in Rome Published: 12:50AM BST 08 Jun 2009

Italians appeared to overlook the scandals engulfing Silvio Berlusconi, their prime minister, giving his centre-Right party a comfortable majority in the European elections, early results showed.

A poll commissioned by La Repubblica newspaper gave the billionaire businessman's People of Freedom Party between 39 and 43 per cent of the vote and the left-wing opposition between 27 and 31 per cent of the vote. It showed that the anti-immigration, Right-wing

Northern League, an ally of Mr Berlusconi's party, attracted between 6.5 and 10.5 per cent of the vote The results, collated by polling agency IPR marketing, were preliminary, appearing within minutes of voting coming to an end late on Sunday night.

They were based on a poll of 5,000 people carried out as Italians cast their votes.

In the past, however, exit polls and early projections have turned out to be highly unreliable in Italy, in part because some voters are reluctant to admit that they have voted for Right-wing parties.

But if proved to be accurate, the results appeared to chime with trends across Europe, in which centre-Right parties looked set for victories while centre-Left parties such as Britain's Labour were punished at the polls.

While Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party appeared to have fared well, a vote of 39-43 per cent is far lower than the 70 per cent approval rating that he often claims for himself.

Nor could the projected vote be interpreted as a heavy defeat for the opposition - the Democratic Party was hoping to win at least 27 per cent of the vote, so anything over that would be seen as a bonus.

If confirmed, the government's share of the vote would be similar to the 37.4 per cent that Mr Berlusconi's party won in the lower house of parliament in last year's general election, which propelled him to a third stint as prime minister. His party had hoped to win at least 40 per cent of the European election vote, in the first test of its popularity since being elected to government last year.

Mr Berlusconi, 72, accused the opposition Democratic Party of collaborating with Italy's "Leftist" press to embarrass him by leaking details of his divorce and his friendship with Noemi Letizia, whose 18th birthday party he recently attended.

"The electoral results will represent a terrible defeat for this Left, which has substituted an electoral programme - which it doesn't have - for calumny," he said last week.

While pollsters predict a lurch to the right in many countries across European, Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party, which recently merged with a party founded by the political heirs of Benito Mussolini, is already firmly in occupation of the centre-Right end of the political spectrum.

Since being elected for a third time as prime minister last year, he has announced a crackdown on law and order, putting armed troops on the streets, making illegal immigration a crime, ordering a census of the Roma gypsy population and pushing boat loads of immigrants back to Libya without letting them land on Italian soil.

Italy, with a population of 58 million, sends 72 MEPs to Brussels.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/5472286/European-elections-2009-Silvio-Berlusconis-centre-Right-party-wins-in-Italy.html

 

MALTALabour seen winning in Malta EU vote

07 June 2009, 21:36 CET

— filed under: Malta, European Parliament

(VALLETTA) - Malta's Labour Party (PES) scored a resounding success in the European election on Sunday, according to predictions by both major parties.

Labour said it won 55 percent of the vote against 40 percent for the Nationalist Party. Nationalist Party secretary general Paul Borg Olivier said his party had 40 percent while Labour had 57 percent.

Malta has five seats in the EU parliament but it was not immediately clear how they would be shared out.

"We have won a comfortable absolute majority," said Labour leader Joseph Muscat. "This result is not the point of arrival but of departure for this movement," he added as Labour supporters paraded in the island, the EU-smallest state.

If the predictions prove right, the Nationalist would have kept its share of vote from the last EU election in 2004 while Labour had won votes from the smaller ecology Alternattiva Party. Official results were due on Sunday night.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1244403122.68

POLANDHuge EP win for Civic Platform 07.06.2009

UPDATE (00.23 CET) - The ruling Civic Platform have won a clear victory in Poland’s European parliamentary elections, according to exit polls; turnout is up compared to the elections in 2004; but only one in four cast a vote.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s party won 45 percent of the vote, according to a poll by SMG-KRC. Law and Justice has 29 percent, Left Democratic Alliance/Labour Party (SLD-UP) 12 percent and Polish Peasant’s Party (PSL) seven percent.

Turnout is estimated by pollsters at 27 percent, up over six percent from five years ago.

If the exit poll results translated into seats in the European Parliament, Civic Platform would have 24 MEPs, Law and Justice 16, SLD-UP 6 and PSL 4.

A poll by OBOP for TVP public television puts Civic Platform share of the vote at 54

percent, Law and Justice on 23 percent and SLD-UP on 9,8 percent.

And an exit poll for Polsat TV news gives Platform 52 percent, 23 percent to Law and Justice, 13,5 to SLD-UP and 6,3 percent for PSL.

Minority parties do badly

Other parties failed to the necessary five percent support to get seats in the European parliament.

The “Forward to the Future” Centre- Left coalition got 1.1 percent: and despite much airtime over the weeks of campaigning in Poland being centred on the Libertas party - especially after controversial appearances at Libertas rallies by Lech Walesa - the anti-Lisbon Treaty group achieved just one percent of the national vote, according to the SMG pollsters.

Turnout is estimated to be significantly up on the 20.9 percent in 2004. Voting was highest in the cities of Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice.

After the exit poll results were published, Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the party faithful at a celebration rally that he was glad that turnout was higher than five years ago and that his government had not been “yellow carded” by the electorate.

Leader of Law and Justice, Jaroslaw Kaczynski congratulated Civic Platform on their victory and hoped that they would work together with his party in representing Poland in the European Parliament.

Low turnout - ‘a national characteristic’?

One of the factors worrying politicians most in Poland was the repeat of the low turnout of five years ago, when just one-in-five voted in the European elections, just weeks after the nation joined the EU.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters after he cast his vote, that Poland’s traditionally low voter turnout in elections  - in local, national and pan-European ballots - was a “national characteristic” and that maybe we would just have to “learn to live with it.”

Prime Minister Tusk cast his vote, alongside his wife, at 11.00 am this morning in Sopot, northern Poland, and President Kaczynski at 11.15 am in Warsaw.

In Warsaw, Civic Platform, led by former European Commissioner Danuta Hubner won 43 percent, to Law and Justice, led by former MEP and Secretary of State in the Presidential Chancellery Michal Kaminski with 10 percent.

In Krakow, Law and Justice, led by Zbigniew Ziobro - a controversial former minister of

justice - gained 41 percent to Civic Platform’s 35 percent.

Around 30 million Poles are part of the 375 million who were eligible to vote in today’s European elections.

Early projections around the EU point to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) - of which both Civic Platform and the Polish Peasant’s Party are members - retaining its place as the largest political group within the European Parliament. EPP centre-right parties in Germany, France and Italy have done well, as have conservative parties in Spain, Hungary and Austria.

http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/news/artykul109725.html

PORTUGALPortugal's socialists haemmorhage to far-left, greens in EU vote

08 June 2009, 00:04 CET

— filed under: Portugal, European Parliament

(LISBON) - Prime Minister Jose Socrates's Socialists took a battering in EU parliamentary elections Sunday as voters deserted to the far-left, near-complete results from the interior ministry showed.

Based on 98 percent of the count, the ruling party showed an 18 percentage point drop to 26.45 percent, with the conservatives only slightly up on 33.07 percent as against 2004.

Greens and far-left parties were the main beneficiaries of the Socialist vote collapse, setting the stage for tight October general elections.

Socrates, who is also the head of the Portuguese Socialist Party, admitted "it will be harder to obtain a positive result in the next vote."

Conservative Social Democrats chief Paolo Rangel said his party's victory marked the beginning of a new electoral cycle and said it was "a personal defeat for Mr. Socrates."

"It's an enormous setback for the policies put forward by the Socialist Party," said Miguel Portas, who headed the far-left list.

Turnout was just over 37 percent in Portugal

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1244412127.6

Romania

Romania exit polls: PSD comes first in European elections, slightly overcoming PD-L. Far-rightist Greater Romania Party leader CV Tudor joins European Parliament

de V.O. HotNews.ro

Duminică, 7 iunie 2009, 21:12 English | Top News

Exit polls in Romania's European Parliament elections on Sunday showed the Social Democrats (PSD) and Liberal Democrats (PD-L) in the lead, with an advantage within error margins for PSD. According to a poll by Insomar institute, PSD won 31% of the votes, followed by PD-L with 30.4%, Liberals (PNL) with 16.6%, Hungarian Democrats (UDMR) with 9.1%, Greater Romania Party (PRM, far right) with 7.2%, President Basescu's daughter Elena Basescu (independent) with 3.6%.

Another poll by CCSB showed PSD in the lead with 30.7%, followed by PD-L with 30.4%. According to the CCSB exit poll, the following party received:

The two people leading the populist, far-right group Greater Romania Party are veteran far-right leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor and businessman-politician Gigi Becali.

The two polls by Insomar - delivered to Romanian news channel Realitatea TV - and CCSB - for Romanian news channel Antena 3 - take into account votes cast by 7.00 p.m.. The threshold for a party to enter the European Parliament is 5% at national level.

http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-top_news-5799561-romania-exit-polls-psd-comes-first-european-elections-slightly-overcoming-far-rightist-greater-romania-party-leader-tudor-joins-european-parliament.htm

SLOVAKIAEP ELECTIONS: Slovakia elects its representatives to the European Parliament

VOTER-TURNOUT AGAIN AMONG THE LOWEST IN THE EU

THOUGH Slovakia has improved its infamous performance in the 2004 elections for the European Parliament when less than 17 percent of the eligible voters participated, the country has again posted one of the lowest turnouts in the European Union since only 19.64 percent of all eligible voters went to polls this year on June 6. While some political leaders blamed media for the low turnout, analysts suggest that Slovak politicians have often been leaving European issues out of their political discourse lying on the sidelines of domestic politics.

Nevertheless, Slovak citizens have now elected their new and returning representatives to the European Parliament.

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer party will take five seats in the European Parliament and the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) and the Christian Democratic Movement have each won two seats, according to the official results published by the Central Election Commission on June 7.

The Slovak National Party (SNS) and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) will each have one seat.

Smer, the senior party in the governing parliamentary coalition in Slovakia, had the support of 32.01 percent of the Slovak voters in the balloting held on Saturday for Slovakia’s 13 representatives to the European Parliament. Of the three parliamentary opposition parties, SDKÚ collected 16.98 percent of the vote while SMK received 11.33 percent and KDH 10.87 percent. The two junior parties in the governing coalition, HZDS and SNS, received 8.97 percent and 5.55 percent of the vote, respectively, according to the Central Election Commission.

Preferential votes cast by citizens most probably moved Smer’s Monika Flašíková Beňová to the first position for Smer even though she was listed third on its candidate list. Smer’s candidate on the top of its list, Boris Zala, is also expected to take a seat in the EP along with current EP deputy Vladimír Maňka. Monika Smolková and Katarína Neveďalová should be the other two EP deputies for Smer.

The HZDS will send Sergej Kozlík, a former finance minister, to the European Parliament while the SNS will have Jaroslav Paška as its representative in the EP.

SDKÚ will have current EP deputy Peter Šťastný and former foreign affairs minister Eduard Kukan; Anna Záborská, current EP deputy, and Miroslav Mikolášik will represent Slovakia for the KDH while the SMK will send Edit Bauer, already in the EP, and Alajos Mészaros.

Pavol Paška, the vice-chairman of the party, said Smer was definitely the winner in Slovakia’s European elections.

“All of our sympathisers as well as commentators evaluate the preliminary results as an absolute victory by Smer,” Paška said in a discussion on the public service STV channel, as quoted by the SITA newswire.

Anna Belousovová, the vice-chairwoman of one of the junior coalition partners, the SNS was not satisfied with the results. However, she said on public service broadcaster STV that “on the other hand, it’s the first time that SNS will have its deputy in the EP,” as reported by SITA.

According to Belousovová, the results were influenced by the “heavy media campaign, which brought into play all of our faults”. She added that such a campaign has never been seen in Slovakia before.

After the elections, representation of Slovakia’s three parliamentary opposition parties will shrink from eight seats to six in the European Parliament. In spite of this loss of two

mandates, the opposition parties see the results in a positive light saying that in total the three right-centre parties have netted more seats than the left-centre Smer party, which finished the preliminary vote-count with five mandates.

The third mandate is the sole thing which the SDKÚ misses to be completely satisfied with the EP elections, SDKÚ leader Mikuláš Dzurinda said on June 7.

“I am absolutely sure that that both MEPs for SDKÚ will defend national and state interests of Slovakia in the European Parliament,” said Dzurinda as cited by TASR.

KDH leader Pavol Hrušovský said on June 7 that the party regards its gaining of two EP seats as a very good result. Hrušovský said that winning two mandates was a good result because of problems in Slovakia’s domestic political scene during the last two years as well as some problems inside the KDH.

When commenting on the preliminary results, Hrušovský said that the elections have shown that there is no single party able to compete head-to-head with the Smer party, but when all right-centre votes and mandates are added together, they netted more than Smer.

SMK’s leadership evaluates the results of the balloting on June 7 in Slovakia as a success.

“Our goal was to keep our potential in the EP,” SMK leader Pál Csáky said when reacting to the preliminary results. According to those results, SMK will keep its two seats in EP and Edit Bauer will be returning and Alajos Mészáros should serve his first term in the EP.

Fico blames media for the public’s disinterest

Ivan Štefunko, an analyst with the Euractiv.sk portal, told the public service Slovak Television that turnout in Slovakia was likely to be one of the lowest across the 27-nation European community.

Štefunko said this low turnout is a result of the failure of top Slovak politicians to attract the electorate through regular presentation and discussion of European views and issues. Over the past five years, he said, Slovak politicians have almost not mentioned the European Union among their issues of political discourse.

Prime Minister Fico blamed media for the level of disinterest by citizens, according to daily Sme.

“I will be frank with you – it happened to me yesterday – I stopped a person I know and asked him whether he will go to vote,” Fico told Sme. “He said – for what, for that Sk500,000 salary they will be making? Someone has created this image, so [the media] should do some self-reflection.”

Then the prime minister walked away, Sme wrote.

The director of the EP Information Office in Slovakia, Robert Hajšel, attributes voters’ apathy and their limited interest in European public affairs with each country’s domestic

political scene. He pointed out that most other EU member states failed to halt the shrinking interest in the EP elections this year while in Slovakia, if unofficial results are confirmed, turnout improved by about two percentage points compared with five years ago.

"Given our expectations, this outcome is better than projections," Hajšel concluded.

The arrangement of mandates in the European Parliament does not say much about the real balance of power and political influence in Slovakia, according to political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov, but rather about the ability of individual parties to mobilise voters.

Mesežnikov suggested that due to the low turnout the results are not representative enough to draw conclusions about the distribution of domestic political power. However, Mesežnikov praised the Sloboda a solidarita (Freedom and Solidarity) party which this year got very close to making it to the EP. He said that could be a promising development.

Sociologist Pavel Haulík sees low interest by Slovakia’s political parties themselves as the main reason for the low voter turnout. Verbally the parties support the elections, but they did not do enough to lure voters to the polls, he said.

The election campaign was not motivating, Haulík said. He certainly does not view the weather or voters’ leisure activities as the main reason for the low turnout, as the numbers in 2004 and this year are too similar.

Haulík said that the parties even did not even bother to make an effort to find out which individuals might have a chance to perform better on their candidate lists. He added that some names on the lists were totally unknown to voters.

“If a voter sees someone he or she doesn’t know and the information only is that he is 26 years old and works as an assistant, the voter might decide not to vote at all,” Haulík concluded.

http://www.spectator.sk/articles/view/35561/2/slovakia_elects_its_representatives_to_the_european_parliament.html

SLOVENIAExit polls: Center-right wins EU vote in SloveniaAssociated Press 2009-06-08 03:47 AM

Exit polls show that Slovenia's center-right opposition party won most votes in European Parliament elections _ a blow to the ruling leftists only seven months after they came to power.

Two exit polls, released after the vote Sunday, give the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party 26-32 percent of votes, or two to three seats. The party was ousted from power in October.

The governing leftist Social Democrats are projected to get 18-22 percent of votes, or two seats. The country gets 7 seats.

Social Democrats have faced the global financial crisis since coming to power.

Slovenia, with 2 million people, has seven seats in the 736-seat EU parliament.

 http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=970410&lang=eng_news

SPAINSpain opposition conservatives win EU vote

07 June 2009, 23:51 CET

— filed under: Spain, European Parliament

(MADRID) - Spain's opposition conservatives beat the ruling Socialists in European elections Sunday seen as a test for the government amid the worst recession in 15 years and soaring unemployment.

With 88.49 percent of votes counted, the opposition Popular Party had garnered 42.03 percent and 23 of the 50 seats up for grabs, compared to 38.66 percent and 21 seats for the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

In the last European parliamentary elections, in 2004, the Socialist Party won 25 of the 54 seats then at stake, against 24 for the PP.

The election was marked by another low turnout of just 45.81 percent, up just slightly from the all-time low of 45.14 percent five years ago.

"We have won the elections," PP leader Mariano Rajoy told cheering supporters. "This is our best result in a European election."

He said the people "expressed their desire for change."

The Socialist Party described the result as "reasonably positive."

Campaign issues had focused on domestic, rather than European, issues with the PP playing on concerns over the economic crisis and soaring unemployment.

The opposition also accused Zapatero, who was comfortably re-elected to a second four-year term in March last year, of using military, rather than private, planes to travel to campaign rallies.

The PP has been hit by allegations of corruption involving regional leaders, but it had been encouraged by an election victory in the northwestern region of Galicia in March.

Spain entered its first recession in 15 years at the end of 2008 as the global credit crunch worsened a correction which was already underway in its once booming housing sector.

The country's unemployment rate soared to 17.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009, more than double the average of 8.3 percent for the entire 27-nation European Union.

The Coalition for Europe, composed of nationalist parties from various regions of Spain, had picked up 4.94 percent of the vote and two seats and the left-wing IU-ICV coalition 3.78 percent and two seats.

Another alliance of nationalist parties, Europe for the People -- Greens, and the anti-nationalist UPyD each bagged one seat.

A total of 35.5 million people were eligible to vote.

These included 284,000 citizens of other EU member states, mainly Romanians (76,000) and Britons (49,000).

Spain was one of 19 of the 27 EU nations top vote Sunday on the fourth and final day of polling to elect 736 deputies for a five-year term at the European parliament, which is the only directly-elected EU institution.

The parliament, which has struggled to strengthen its standing in the continent, is expected to stay under centre-right control.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1244406727.97

SWEDENSwedish Pirate Party enters EU parliament: results

08 June 2009, 01:06 CET

— filed under: Sweden, Internet, European Parliament

(STOCKHOLM) - A Swedish party that wants to legalise Internet filesharing and beef up web privacy scored a big victory Sunday by winning a European Parliament seat, results showed.

The Pirate Party won 7.1 percent of votes, taking one of Sweden's 18 seats in the EU parliament, with ballots in all but one of the country's 5,664 constituencies counted as the electoral commission halted the tally for the evening.

"Privacy issues and civil liberties are important to people and they demonstrated that clearly when they voted today," one of the Pirate Party's candidates, Anna Troberg, told Swedish television on Sunday.

The party was founded in January 2006 and quickly attracted members angered by controversial laws adopted in Sweden that criminalised filesharing and authorised monitoring of emails.

Its membership shot up after a Stockholm court on April 17 sentenced four Swedes to a year in jail for running one of the world's biggest filesharing sites, The Pirate Bay.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's conservative Moderates won 18.8 percent of votes and four seats, close to its score in the European election in 2004 but down sharply from the 26.1 percent it won in Sweden's 2006 general election.

Coming little more than a year ahead of Sweden's next general election in September 2010, political analyst Mats Knutson called the result a "formidable cold shower" for Reinfeldt, speaking on public television SVT.

The opposition Social Democrats, traditionally Sweden's biggest party, won 24.6 percent, also close to their result in 2004 and maintaining their five seats in the EU parliament.

Reinfeldt's four-party coalition -- made up of the Moderates, Centrists, Liberals and Christian Democrats -- won 42.6 percent of votes and nine seats, compared to 41.1 percent and eight seats for the leftist opposition comprising the Social Democrats, Greens and Left Party.

The Greens scored a strong rise in support, and were credited with 10.9 percent of votes compared to 6.0 percent in 2004 and doubled their seats to two.

The formerly communist Left party saw its support drop from 12.8 percent in 2004 to 5.6 percent and one seat, a drop of one.

The far-right Sweden Democrats, which are not represented in Sweden's parliament, meanwhile tripled their score but not enough to win a seat in parliament.

Their support rose from 1.1 percent in 2004 -- and 2.9 percent in the 2006 general election -- to 3.3 percent.

Voter turnout in Sweden was 43.8 percent, higher than the 37.1 percent in the 2004 election, election officials said.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1244406730.55

UKBNP wins European Parliament seat

Published: 2009/06/07 23:15:51 GMT

The BNP has won its first MEP in what is shaping up to be an historic defeat for Labour in the European elections.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the BNP win was a "sad moment". The BNP candidate said it was the "first step to freedom" from EU "dictatorship".

Labour could be on course to dip below 20% of the vote in what Harriet Harman has called a "very dismal" night.

The party lost 12% of its vote in Wales, where they were beaten by the Tories for the first time since 1918.

The BNP won its first MEP, Andrew Brons, after gaining more than 120,000 votes in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

With results starting to flow in, Labour looks on course to dip below 20% of the overall vote share - an historic low which will increase pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is facing calls to stand down.

The Conservatives won easily in the East of England, although their share of the vote remained roughly the same as in 2004 - as did that of UKIP, which came second and the Lib Dems, who came third.

But Labour's vote was down 6% as the Greens and the BNP both increased their share.

Labour won the most votes in the North-East of England in the first UK European election result - but its share of the vote was down 9% on 2004.

The North East is regarded as one of Labour's strongest regions, although they have been under pressure in recent years from both the Tories and the Lib Dems.

Labour's Deputy Leader Harriet Harman told the BBC: "We are bracing ourselves for very dismal results, there is no doubt about that."

“ We are advancing in all parts of the country ” William Hague Conservatives

But she sought to deflect attention from the prime minister, putting the blame for Labour's performance on the MPs' expenses which she said had hit the party hard.

"Our supporters are absolutely furious with us about expenses," she said. "They expect us to have higher standards than the Tories."

'Unity call'

But former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer repeated his call for a new leader to re-unify the party.

"I think unity will only come with a leader that the mainstream votes for," he said.

Elsewhere, in the South East, with half the votes counted, Labour was trailing in fifth place behind the Greens, with UKIP in second place behind the Tories and the Lib Dems in third.

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In Scotland, the Nationalists were outpolling Labour by a clear margin in the early results.

The SNP looked certain to finish the night ahead of Labour in the popular vote - achieving the goal which SNP leader Alex Salmond had set his party.

Overall, shadow foreign secretary William Hague expressed confidence that the Tories would top the national poll with around the same share of the vote as in 2004.

"We are advancing in all parts of the country," he said.

In the English local elections held on Thursday the Conservatives got a projected 38% of the vote, the Lib Dems 28% and Labour 23%.

In the 2004 European elections the Conservatives won 26.7% of votes, Labour 22.6%, UKIP 16.1%, the Lib Dems 14.9%, the Greens 6.3% and the BNP 4.9%.

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Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8088133.stm