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| Tuesday, 15 June 2004 |
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EU voters send no-confidence message in low poll BRUSSELS, Monday (Reuters) Europe's voters have delivered a massive vote of no confidence in their governments in European Parliament elections, both by hammering ruling parties and by staying away in record numbers. The biggest transnational election in history, staged just six weeks after the European Union expanded from 15 to 25 states with 450 million citizens, highlighted public indifference towards remote EU institutions. In mid-term protest votes, electors punished British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his role in the U.S.-led Iraq war, and the governing parties in France, Germany and Poland for economic stagnation, high unemployment and painful social reforms. Only the recently elected Spanish and Greek governments escaped the voters' wrath, amplifying their national victories. A mere 44.2 percent of nearly 350 million eligible voters bothered to cast ballots in the four-day exercise, the lowest turnout since direct elections for the Strasbourg-based assembly began in 1979. In an irony of history, voter participation was even weaker in the 10 new, mainly ex-communist east European member states, where it averaged just 26 percent, apparently due to voter fatigue after referendums last year on joining the EU. "Today's results, up to now, appear to be the worst," outgoing parliament president Pat Cox said, lamenting the narrow domestic focus of the debate. "Europe has been too absent in too many campaigns." In Britain and Poland, hardline Eurosceptics made stunning gains, sending strident new voices of hostility to European integration to sit in the increasingly powerful EU legislature. The UK Independence Party, which won its first three seats in 1999, was on course to grab 15 this time, while Poland's populist League of Catholic Families beat the ruling Socialists into fourth place. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats crashed to their worst result since World War Two while French President Jacques Chirac's centre-right UMP party suffered its second electoral defeat in three months. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party also lost ground, although it suffered a milder anti-war backlash than other U.S. allies in Britain, Denmark or Portugal. The overall balance in parliament, which has growing powers over EU spending, financial regulation, food safety and environmental rules, was little changed. The centre-right European People's Party was set to remain the biggest group with 274 of the 732 seats, the Socialists were second with 199, the Liberals third with 67 and the Greens fourth with 42. It was not immediately clear what alliance would be formed to run parliament. Politicians said the Socialists and an augmented Liberal group that may be boosted by defectors from the centre-right EPP were exploring a possible deal, although a return to the traditional power-sharing between EPP and Socialists which prevailed until 1999 was also possible. Liberal leader Graham Watson said his faction could be in the position of "kingmakers". As final results trickle in on Monday, attention will shift to last-ditch negotiations on a proposed EU constitution, due to be concluded at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, and to the search for a new European Commission president. EU president Ireland circulated new proposals ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg, aimed at assuaging key British and Dutch objections to the removal of national vetoes in the draft constitution. But the Irish offered no text on the core disputes over member states' voting powers and the future size of the European Commission, which remain to be settled at the summit. Two possible contenders for the EU executive's top job - Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker - had mixed fortunes at the polls. Verhofstadt's Flemish Liberals were pushed into third place by the far-right anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok in regional polls in Flanders, but he vowed his federal government would soldier on. Juncker, a Christian Democrat and the EU's longest-serving head of government, was easily re-elected in the 450,000-strong Grand Duchy but has insisted he does not want the Brussels job despite widespread support among fellow EU leaders. |
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