BRUSSELS, 15 June 2004 — European leaders were humbled yesterday after a string of stunning defeats for ruling parties in the first elections for a newly enlarged European Parliament marked by record low turnout.
Voters punished governments that supported the US-led war on Iraq or brought in painful economic reforms, and in the former communist eastern Europe they showed no mercy for leaders who had guided them into the EU on May 1.
Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, and French President Jacques Chirac all suffered humiliating defeats.
And from Prague to London, Euroskeptic parties opposed to the entire process of EU integration made considerable gains in the first EU-wide elections since the bloc’s historic expansion to take in states once behind the Iron Curtain.
As counting neared end, projections said the center-right group in the 732-member assembly — the European People’s Party — retained its pole position with 276 seats, the European Socialists were second with 201, the Liberals third with 66 and the Greens fourth at 42.
One of the biggest electoral slaps was for Germany’s Schroeder, whose ruling Social Democrats suffered catastrophic losses blamed on anger at their tough economic reform drive that includes social welfare cuts.
But the chancellor vowed yesterday not to be swayed by the results. “I can only continue with these policies and I want to continue only with these policies,” Schroeder said, adding there was “no alternative” to his program.
Turnout was estimated to have slumped to barely 45 percent of the 350 million voters in the bloc’s 25 member states — the lowest since the first such elections in 1979.
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 was fast evaporating.
Outgoing European Parliament head Pat Cox said the Euroskeptic surge was a warning for pro-EU leaders across Europe. “This is especially important as a wake-up call for those leaders in those states who propose to hold referendum on the constitutional treaty,” he said, referring to a historic blueprint for governing the 25-member bloc which EU leaders want to agree at a Brussels summit on Thursday and Friday.
Skeptics have argued that the Iraq conflict, which opened up a fault line in Europe between pro- and anti-war camps, showed the EU was nearing breaking point as it battled to keep its 25 states on the same line.
Joining seasoned politicians in the 15,000-strong race for a seat were a quirky swathe of candidates ranging from a Czech porn actress, a Slovenian soccer star, an Estonian supermodel and even an astronaut. It was still unclear yesterday if any of these had won seats.
In Britain, the UK Independence Party, which wants the country to pull out of the EU, made a dramatic breakthrough by taking 12 seats in the Parliament, according to partial results. Last time round it had only three.
In France, the opposition Socialist party emerged as clear winners, while Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party suffered one of its worst-ever performances with less than 21 percent of the vote.
Spain’s new Socialist government was one of the few ruling parties to outscore its rivals, along with Greece’s conservatives.
In Poland, the EU’s largest new member, the opposition Civic Platform crushed the ruling Democratic Alliance (SLD), and anti-EU parties appeared to have captured a quarter of the vote.
