European press review

Papers across Europe take stock of the results of the EU parliament elections, which were marked by a low turnout and which saw many voters give their governments a battering.

'Schroeder's twilight'

In Germany, papers see the governing Social Democrats facing disaster after their heavy losses.

The SPD... lies at rock bottom Die Welt

"This is not just the beginning of Chancellor Schroeder's political twilight," says the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, "the SPD as a whole faces disaster".

This was the party's worst post-war performance at the polls, which in the paper's opinion turns the SPD into "a third-rate party" at the national level.

According to Die Welt, "The SPD now has it in black and white. It lies at rock bottom, where opinion polls have been placing it for months."

The Frankfurter Rundschau says the SPD can no longer claim that most voters back its policies, but it also points out that there was little voter enthusiasm for the main opposition Christian Democratic Union.

'A disappointment for Europe'

In France, Le Nouvel Observateur says that the mere 16.4% scored by President Chirac's UMP party, represents "the second electoral slap in the face for the Raffarin government in three months".

The reunification of the continent, achieved on paper, remains yet to be achieved in the hearts and minds of the people La Repubblica

In contrast, it notes, with a score of 29.9%, the opposition Socialists had their best result ever in an European election and "revalidated their success in last March's regional elections".

For Paris's Liberation, these elections "have proved yet another disappointment for Europe".

The paper points to what it calls "the paradox" that "the greater the powers of the Strasbourg parliament... the smaller is the voters' interest in it".

The parliament's "already fragile legitimacy", it argues, has been "further damaged by these record low turnouts".

Hearts and minds

The theme is picked up in Le Figaro, which concludes that the first parliamentary elections of the 25-strong European Union failed to raise much enthusiasm.

"This lack of enthusiasm was very marked among those who joined the Union last May", it points out, "with the notable exceptions of Malta and Cyprus."

A front-page commentary in Italy's La Repubblica says the very low turnout among voters in the new member states "is a sign that the reunification of the continent, achieved on paper, remains yet to be achieved in the hearts and minds of the people."

'Setback'

In Spain, the narrow victory of the ruling Socialists over the opposition Popular Party is seen by Madrid's El Pais as the "revalidation" of the 14 March general election.

No-one explained to voters... what the European Parliament is actually good for Pravo

But like many, the paper is troubled by the low turnout.

"Let us make no bones about it", it says: "what happened yesterday in nearly the whole of Europe was a setback for Europe and a setback for us all".

"Like the rest of Europe," according to La Razon, "the majority of Spaniards have turned their backs on a process which they do not regard as having an important enough bearing on their lives."

'Unimpressive'

Under the headline "Europe: disaster for the leaders, turnout low", the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza says that the elections "failed to arouse the passion of the voters".

"The first European parliamentary elections after the Union's enlargement," the paper says, "will go down in history on account of the lowest turn-out in half a century".

The anti-Europeans are in Strasbourg now Cotidianul

"Apart from that", it adds, "they have not brought any greater surprises".

The Czech Pravo calls the election campaign "unimpressive", and points out that "no-one explained to voters... what the European Parliament is actually good for".

As a result, it suggests, the elections ended up focusing on domestic issues, and the result is what the paper calls "a kind of school certificate in which the voters appraised the government's performance half-way through its term of office".

Romanian daily Cotidianul meanwhile notes the strong performance of the Eurosceptics on the Right.

"The anti-Europeans are in Strasbourg now," the paper says, "and they are going to give a bloody nose to the great and the powerful in Brussels".

The fact that so many people in Eastern Europe refused to cast their votes, it believes, "reflects their protest against the terms in which the EU enlargement negotiations have been conducted".

A commentary in Hungary's Magyar Hirlap casts a cynical eye over the whole process, telling its readers that: "You have elected deputies to something which is not a parliament."

It also warns them against "becoming disappointed with the EU at some later stage", because, it says, "we already know what it is like."

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.