News Service from House Harris

EUR: Conservatives hand centre-left painful defeat in EU vote

BRUSSELS, June 8 AFP - Conservatives decisively beat Socialists in EU Parliament elections marred by a record low turnout, results showed on Monday, after the centre-left failed to capitalise on concern over the recession.

The vote marks a painful defeat for Europe's left, whose poor showing opened the door for far-right anti-immigrant and eurosceptic parties to seize the moment and gain support for their hardline message.

Left-wing parties in power in Britain, Spain and Portugal were punished by their electorates while their allies in opposition in Germany and France suffered brutal losses.

The centre-right European People's Party secured 267 seats, making it the biggest group in the 736-member assembly, ahead of the Socialists on 159 seats, down from 215, according to official estimates.

About 20 members of Italy's left-leaning Democrats were expected to join the Socialist group in parliament.

The EPP's came despite the desertion of the British and Czech conservatives.

The Liberal Democrats came in third with 81 seats followed by the Greens with 51 seats, up from 43, in the parliament -- the European Union's only directly elected institution.

Some 388 million people were eligible to vote in the world's biggest transnational elections which were spread over four days.

Turnout slumped to 43.55 per cent, down from 45.4 per cent in 2004. The extreme right wing British National Party won its first two European Parliament seats, while Dutch anti-Islamic lawmaker Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom came second on Thursday with 17 per cent of the vote.

"The turnout compared to 2004 shows that this is not the time for complacency," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said, urging national governments to play a more visible EU role.

However, the centre-right victory boosts Barroso's chances of securing a second term at the helm of the EU executive arm when his mandate expires in November.

"It's a sad evening for social democracy in Europe. We are particularly disappointed, (it is) a bitter evening for us," said the head of the Socialist bloc, German lawmaker Martin Schulz.

Embattled British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a new fight for his leadership Monday after the polls brought humiliating results for his Labour Party and a surge in far-right support.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives came out on top, trouncing her centre-left rivals in what was seen as a dry run for September's general election.

They were well ahead of the second-placed Social Democrats, who hit a new record low of 20.8 per cent.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party romped home with close to 28 per cent of the vote, leaving the opposition Socialists trailing with about 16 per cent, about the same as the Greens.

Scandal-plagued Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's party led with 34.7 per cent of the vote with more than three-quarters of polling stations counted -- well below his target of 40 per cent.

Spain's opposition conservatives beat the ruling Socialists, garnering 42.25 per cent compared to 38.50 per cent Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's party, results showed with nearly all votes counted.

The Socialist party of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates also suffered a surprise defeat by the right-wing Social Democrats.

In Austria, the list of eurosceptic campaigner Hans-Peter Martin made major gains, while the ruling Social Democrats had their worst election debacle ever, official results showed.

Finland's nationalist and eurosceptic True Finns party also saw a strong rise in support, with about 10 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

In Ireland, which voted on Friday, the centrist Fianna Fail party led by Prime Minister Brian Cowen suffered a voter backlash, losing out to the opposition Fine Gael.

In contrast to its centre-right European peers, Greece's ruling conservatives trailed the opposition Socialists for their first defeat in five years amid a record-low turnout.

In Bulgaria, accusations of vote-buying including three arrests marred the elections.