Angry voters push Europe further to right

PARIS - Conservatives and Eurosceptics scored gains in elections to the European Parliament that reflected disaffection with the European vision and the failure of left-wing parties to reap political benefit from the recession.

Provisional figures released yesterday after the four-day election showed just 43.5 per cent of the electorate across the European Union bothered to cast their vote, a record low turnout that will cause dismay in Brussels.

Parliament's biggest group will be the centre-right European People's Party-European Democrats (EPP-ED), with about 265 out of 736 seats, according to estimates.

In the outgoing assembly, which had 765 seats, the bloc had 288 members. The centre-left Party of European Socialists (PES) would pick up about 184 seats, after 216 previously.

"It's a sad evening for social democracy in Europe. We are particularly disappointed, [it is] a bitter evening," said PES leader Martin Schulz, a German deputy.

The closely watched ballot provides a litmus test of support for the EU across the 27 member states and of the popularity of ruling parties between national elections.

In Britain and Spain, governing leftwing parties were humiliated by the conservative opposition, while in Italy, France and Germany, governing conservatives defied predictions that they would suffer a protest vote.

The biggest drubbing was dished out to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, worsening his chances of riding out a revolt within the Labour Party.

Labour's support plummeted by nearly nine percentage points to 15.3 per cent, ranking the party a dismal third after the Conservatives on 28.5 per cent and the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP).

In Spain, the conservative opposition inflicted its first nationwide defeat for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, forcing his Socialists into second place.

Ultra-nationalists and Eurosceptic parties were on course to pick up several dozen seats.

In Britain, UKIP consolidated the advances it had made in the 2004 EU elections, and the anti-immigration British National Party (BNP), which campaigns on "British jobs for British workers", picked up two seats to enter the European Parliament for the first time.

In further humiliation for Brown, the Welsh Conservatives outpolled Labour. It was the first time since 1922 that Labour had failed to come in top in a Welsh election.

In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party of far-right MP Geert Wilders - under round-the-clock police protection for his attacks on Islam - grabbed second place with 17 per cent of the vote, enough for four seats.

The Hungarian nationalist Jobbik Party made a startling breakthrough, netting a seventh of the vote; in Austria, a list led by Eurosceptic Hans-Peter Martin picked up nearly 18 per cent; and in Slovakia, the far-right SNS picked up its first-ever European seat.

Disaffection with the European vision began to emerge after the EU's "Big Bang" of 2005, when membership leapt from 15 to 25 and then 27 countries.

The expansion fuelled a sense of disconnection for many citizens, driving media criticism of the European Commission as an over-powerful executive, and the European Parliament as a talking shop.

The Parliament is the largest directly elected transnational assembly in the world, representing nearly half a billion people.

Elected every five years, it vets important European-wide laws that are approved at ministerial level. But it has few powers of veto, which means it has extensive yet only indirect influence in people's lives. It has poor visibility, too, because its legislators are often party loyalists rather than top-rank politicians.

Some incumbent governments defied predictions of an electoral disaster, performing well in the face of fragmented opposition.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - under pressure because of his ties with an 18-year-old model - did far better than expected, his centre-right party notching up 35 per cent.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, like Berlusconi facing a leftwing opposition in disarray, also did strongly. His Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) scooped around 28 per cent as the Socialists wilted to 17 per cent.

"Everyone's saying 'I love you' to Nicolas Sarkozy," exclaimed Roger Karoutchi, the minister in charge of relations with the Parliament. "There was no punishment vote. The anti-Sarkozy referendum failed," said presidential spokesman Luc Chatel.

The Greens did well, notching up an estimated 16 per cent, boosting the likelihood that former 1968 student firebrand Daniel Cohn-Bendit, anti-corruption judge Eva Joly and Jose Bove, the self-styled champion of the small farmer, will be elected.

But the French turnout was a dismal 40 per cent, an unprecedented low for a country that prides itself on its faith in the EU project.

In Germany, too, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, facing general elections this year, also held up their share of the vote, with 38 per cent.

Among single-issue successes, Sweden's Pirate Party, campaigning to legalise downloading of movies and songs on the internet, was credited with 7.4 per cent of the vote, enough to take at least one of the country's 18 Euro-seats.

Turnout has fallen at each European election in the last three decades, from almost 62 per cent in 1979 to 45.47 per cent in 2004.