Foreign Affairs

EP elections: low turnout, strong protest vote

LAST WEEK'S European parliamentary elections were characterised by a low voter turnout - 45.3 per cent, the lowest since 1979, and a large protest vote against Europe's ruling political parties with the exception of the Socialists in Spain and the Conservatives in Greece - who have both only recently been elected to office, the ruling Christian Democrats in Luxembourg, who seem to be the natural party of government in that country, and the governing centre-right coalition parties in Slovakia.

In Sweden, the ruling Social Democrats (again, the natural party of government) and in Austria, the governing centre-right People's Party held their ground. Otherwise, the vote went largely against government parties, which shows that majority of the electorate in Europe primarily consider domestic issues when casting their vote in European elections.

There is no doubt at all that the European Parliament still has to take root in Europe's political life and few people really understand just how important an institution this legislative body really is. The rise of the eurosceptic vote in countries such as Britain and Poland, the high level of abstention (the average voter turnout in the 10 new member states was only 29 per cent, Malta and Cyprus being the obvious exceptions), as well as domestic issues overshadowing the poll, all point to this. A greater effort will therefore have to be made to make the European Parliament more relevant for the average European voter.

To a certain extent, however, citizens' reluctance to vote as well as their taking into consideration of domestic issues is understandable. First of all, a lot of the European Parliament's work deals with issues that fall outside the traditional left-right political divide, such as consumer affairs, environmental protection and the single market. It is therefore not particularly easy for the average voter to identify with a particular political grouping in the European Parliament.

There are, of course, some clear differences between the various parties in the EP, such as whether the EU should be federalist or a union of nation states or how market-oriented the EU should be, but these issues have not yet proved to be as important as domestic concerns when voters cast their ballot.

In theory, of course, the electorate should be voting on European issues, because that is what this European election is all about. Unfortunately, many governments ran their campaign on national issues, which perhaps partly explains their dismal performance. The French, German and Italian governments, whose domestic policies are not popular, did badly in the poll. Britain's ruling Labour Party also did very badly, mainly because of the situation in Iraq.

It is clear, therefore, that the European message is not getting through to the electorate and Europe's political parties are partly to blame for this. Romano Prodi, the outgoing European Commission President, said Europe's leaders "should look in the mirror" when trying to work out why the public are sometimes hostile or apathetic towards the EU". Furthermore, the "Brussels bashing" that some European governments sometimes resort to - including the French and the Germans, in order to win popularity at home, is often counter-productive as it only encourages euroscepticism and abstentions during European elections.

Perhaps the European Greens are the exception here - they ran a common campaign which concentrated on pan-European affairs such as the EU's draft constitution and cross-border economic and transport policy. One might ask: do such issues really appeal to the average voter? The answer is clearly no, but the Greens, whose supporters tend to be very well educated, could afford to debate such issues because they are of interest to their electorate. Consequently, the Greens increased their support in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Portugal, Britain and Malta (although the latter was clearly a protest vote).

As a result of the election, the EPP-EDP (Christian Democrats and British Conservatives) remained the largest bloc in the Parliament with around 276 seats. The Socialists came second with 200 seats, followed by the Liberal Group (66 seats), the Greens (42 seats), the European Left/Nordic Greens (39 seats), the Nationalists (27 seats), the Eurosceptics (15 seats) and the Non-Aligned Group (66 seats).

The parties will now start negotiations among themselves to see who wields most influence in the Parliament. The post of European Parliament president is up for grabs as are the chairmen and members of the various parliamentary committees. It is likely that the EPP-EDP, as the largest group, will demand the lion's share of posts but as is often the case, there will be plenty of wheeling and dealing and horse-trading, especially between the Christian Democrats and Socialists, who very often co-operate very well together.

Europhiles should not be discouraged by last week's election. After all, close to 90 per cent of those who voted supported pro-EU parties, and that is certainly good news. The anti-EU political parties will remain a fringe group within the European Parliament with little power and influence. They will be a nuisance, yes, but will not hold the balance of power nor will they be able to disrupt the workings of the Parliament.

Furthermore, let us not forget that 14 years ago eight of the 10 new member states were living under communist dictatorships. Today their citizens have voted, for the first time, in a European election, in a free and democratic Europe, a Europe of shared values. That alone should be reason to celebrate.