Voters across Europe used the European elections to send a message of protest to national governments, many of which suffered heavy losses in a poll with the lowest turnout in the history of the European Parliament.
Officials suggested last night that the turnout was just above 44 per cent, down from 49 per cent in the 1999 election, with generally lower participation in the 10 new member-states.
Germany's governing Social Democrats saw their vote collapse to just over 21 per cent and France's ruling conservatives were trounced by the opposition Socialists. Britain's Labour government was also expected to fare badly, losing votes to, among others, the Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party. The recently elected governments in Spain and Greece were among the few to escape punishment from voters.
The centre-right was expected to remain the largest group in the new parliament with between 247 and 277 seats, although the second largest group, the Socialists, were expected to make gains, securing between 189 and 209 seats. Liberals were expected to return between 54 and 70 MEPs and Greens between 39 and 49.
Eurosceptics performed well in Britain, Sweden and the Czech Republic but saw their vote fall sharply in Denmark, one of their traditional strongholds. In Poland, the populist Self Defence party appeared to be faring less well than expected.
In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party saw its vote shrivel to just 6 per cent but in France, the National Front doubled its vote and in Belgium, the Vlaams Blok was expected to send three MEPs to Strasbourg.
In the Netherlands, the party of Mr Paul van Buitenen, a former Commission official who exposed corruption in Brussels, won two seats. In Austria, Mr Hans-Peter Martin, an MEP who exposed expenses scams in the European Parliament, won more than 14 per cent of the vote.
Full results are expected later today.
