The European Parliament elections were a clear victory for the center-right, with Conservative and Christian Democratic governments scoring well in Germany, France, Italy and Poland, while the Socialist administrations of Spain and Britain took a knock from voters.

Many analysts had expected center-right governments to suffer a backlash for their association with free-market policies blamed for the financial meltdown which sparked the global economic slump last year. But voters seemed to have judged that their conservative leaders provide a safer alternative in uncertain times.

Overall, the European People's Party, which includes the national parties of center-right leaders such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, took 267 of the 736 seats in the European Parliament. Their nearest rivals, the Party of European Socialists slumped to just 159 seats, while the Liberals took 81 and the Greens 51.

"Voters have turned to the center right for a stable hand in a time where a lot of Europe's population are faced with big problems such as unemployment, social welfare questions and the direct impact on their private economies," said Sara Hagemann, an expert at the European Policy Center, a leading Brussels think tank.

Sarkozy, Merkel and other center-right leaders have responded to the crisis with interventionist polices to shore up the economy, allowing them to reach out to centrist and center-left voters. In contrast, the left-wing opposition, particularly in France and Italy, appears weak and torn by internal divisions.

In many countries, voters turned away from traditional parties, giving high scores to environmentalists, anti-EU groups and extremist parties on the right and left.

In Britain, the defeat for the Labor Party was particularly humiliating and increased the already intense pressure for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign.

Labor came third behind the main opposition Conservative Party and the nationalist United Kingdom Independence Party, which wants Britain to leave the EU. With just 15.3 percent of the vote, Labor had its worst nationwide election result since World War I.

The result is another serious blow to Brown, whose party has been worst hit by a corruption scandal involving several members of the national parliament. No less than six government ministers resigned last week and the party also suffered a stinging defeat in local elections on Thursday. The drubbing in the European polls may be the final straw for the Labor Party which could force Brown to step down.

Compounding Labor's misery, Britain for the first time elected two members of an extreme-right group, the British National Party, to serve in the European assembly. Far right parties also scored strongly in the Netherlands, Hungary and Romania, but more established anti-immigrant parties in France and Belgium suffered setbacks.

In France, the Socialists lost votes to the Greens who were led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a charismatic former student rebel, who found fame in 1968 as "Danny the Red" when he led protests on the streets of Paris. Cohn-Bendit said Sunday's vote was a "D-Day for ecologists" as the Greens saw their share of the French vote double to 16 percent.

With Green parties also scoring well in Germany, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands, environmental issues are expected to get a high priority in the new parliament. "We have an agenda for change, an agenda for Europe," Cohn-Bendit told cheering supporters.

However, Sarkozy's UMP took more seats than the Socialists and Greens put together, winning 30 of France's 72 seats.

It was a similar picture in Germany, where Merkel's Christian Democrats won 42 seats, compared to 23 for the Social Democrats and 14 for the liberal Free Democratic Party.

The result does not bode well for the center-left in September's general election. If the European election results are repeated then, Merkel will be able to ditch her Social Democratic Party (SPD) coalition partners and form a new government in alliance with her preferred allies, the pro-business Free Democrats. Sunday's results were a personal defeat for Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the SPD's candidate for chancellorship in September elections.

"The SPD doesn't only have a problem mobilizing its voters, it has a problem with it's leading candidate (Steinmeier) who has apparently failed miserably in his recent efforts to improve his domestic policy image," said the online edition of the news weekly Der Spiegel.

Berlusconi's Party of Freedom was easily the biggest party in Italy with 29 seats. However, it failed to meet a target of 40 percent of the vote, amid a spate of lurid stories about the 72-year-old premier's alleged relationship with a teenage model and claims he hosted wild parties with dancing girls at his luxury villa.

The election results were also good news for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The victory for the center-right means he is unlikely to face a credible left-wing challenge from the parliament if, as expected, EU governments nominate him for a second term as head of the EU's executive branch.

Polish Christian Democrat Jerzy Buzek is a hot tip to become the first president of the European Parliament from Eastern Europe after Sunday's results, although he faces a challenge from Italian candidate Mario Mauro.

Barroso said the low turnout in the election showed the EU had to make a greater effort to reach out to citizens. "This is not the time for complacency," he said in statement.

Only 42.8 percent of the EU's 375 million voters turned out for the elections, the lowest level since direct voting began in 1979.

Paradoxically, voter interest has steadily declined even as successive EU treaties have given the parliament ever greater power to shape policies across the 27-nation bloc.

Source: Xinhua