Transparency International Bulgaria's director Kalin Slavov said it detected "severe and drastic breaches" while monitoring Sunday's elections. He said many people signalled violations but when asked for their identity, few actually registered. "It is obvious that the politicians used the vote to collect numbers rather than to gain citizens' trust." ...
Spanish socialist leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has stepped down following his PSOE party's weak showing in Sunday's European Parliament election. It lost nine of its 23 seats. "I assume political responsibility for the bad results," he said Monday as he called for a new leader to be chosen in July. ...
Polish PM Donald Tusk's centre-right Civic Platform (PO) was beaten narrowly by opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party with 31.34% against 32.33% in Sunday's EU vote. Both parties will send 19 MEPs to Strasbourg. The anti-EU 'New Right' lead by Janusz Korwin-Mikke surprised by winning four seats with 7.06% votes. ...
Odihr, the European election watchdog which sent 1,200 monitors to Ukraine, said Monday that "in 98% of the polling stations we observed, voting was assessed positively." Its head, former Italian MP Tana de Zulueta, told EUobserver that anyone reading its report would note that "overall" it gave the thumbs up. ...
Eurosceptic Croatian nationalist MEP Ruza Tomasic, whose presence on the European People's Party HDZ list drew the ire of EPP president, Joseph Daul, has been re-elected to the European Parliament. Since joining the EP in July 2013 after Croatia's accession, she sat with the European Conservative and Reformists group. ...
Top EU officials Van Rompuy and Barroso said they "take good note" of the report by Odihr, a European election watchdog, that Sunday's presidential vote in Ukraine was "a genuine election largely in line with international commitments". They urged all Ukrainians to react by "accepting the outcome of the vote". ...
The new European Parliament will need to work harder to find majorities while the biggest change following the EU vote is in the member states themselves. ...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has downplayed the chances of Jean-Claude Juncker becoming the next Commission president, as she emphasised that a majority is needed in both the European Parliament and among member states. ...
Lib Dem activists had claimed the deputy prime minister has no strategy to prevent electoral oblivion in 2015 Supporters of Nick Clegg have derided a push to oust the Liberal Democrat leader from office in the wake of disastrous local and European election results, claiming there were only minimal signs of a revolt inside the parliamentary party. But Clegg's critics, comprising more than 200 party...
In the European election campaign, the party stood alone for British values and liberal politics while other parties bottled it The Liberal Democrats knew that the European election campaign would be a challenge. These are not easy times for a party to articulate a strong, pro-European message the position we hold. And yet, notwithstanding a disappointing outcome, the Liberal Democrats are in a unique...
Against a backdrop of discontent with the EU, 375 million people from 28 countries were eligible to vote in elections to the European parliament. Use our interactive to view the complete state-by-state makeup of the new European parliament and see whether extreme parties of the right and left have fared as well as expected Continue reading... ...
See how political parties in the UK have fared as European elections results are declared across the EU's 28 member states. With Ukip expecting to build on a strong showing in the local elections, the makeup of the 73 UK MEPs heading to the European parliament will give each party more food for thought ahead of next year's general election Continue reading... ...
Ukip leader stays clear of the spotlight as he waits to see if he's delivered his promised 'earthquake' to UK politics In contrast to the frenzied round of camera-friendly flesh-pressing, door-knocking and pint-sinking of the past few weeks of campaigning, Nigel Farage spent Sunday keeping an uncharacteristically low profile in the hours before the results of the European parliament elections. No,...
FN leader claims 'the people have spoken', as far-right party polls an historic 25% of votes in the European elections It was, as even their avowed opponents agreed, an historic victory. Or as French foreign minister Laurent Fabius succinctly put it, there was "one winner and a lot of losers". From the beginning of the European election campaign weeks ago Marine Le Pen was insistent that...
CDU and its sister party CSU together gain 35.4% of vote, with the Pirate party and Animal Rights party also gaining seats The party group led by Angela Merkel, below, emerged as the overall winner in Germany, in spite of suffering its worst result in the history of European parliamentary elections. The CDU and Bavarian sister party the CSU together gained 35.4% of the vote, beating into second place...
Danish People's party won nearly 27% of the vote and has doubled its number of MEPs The far-right Danish People's party (DPP) triumphed in the European elections, winning Denmark's biggest share of the vote as EU-sceptic parties from across the Nordic countries gained further ground in the European parliament. The DPP, which had campaigned to reclaim border controls and curb benefits to other EU citizens...
The British National party leader suffered another blow, allegedly punched by a protester at Manchester town hall The British National Party's brief foray into European politics is over after leader Nick Griffin was decisively ousted as an MEP. Conceding defeat, Griffin said BNP supporters had voted for "Ukip's racist policies instead". Continue reading... ...
Alexis Tsipras says outcome of the vote robs government of any 'political or moral legitimacy' to continue with austerity policies The election marked a turning point for Greece on Sunday with voters delivering a resounding victory for the radical left Syriza party while sending at least three neo-nazi Golden Dawn members to Brussels. In a historic day for the left, the anti-austerity Syriza won the...
Governing party's president says narrow win is 'great news' with two main parties losing major ground in European vote The People's party of Spain narrowly beat out the Socialists in the European elections, but with smaller insurgent parties winning two out of every five votes the Spanish media dubbed the result a "punishment" for Spain's two dominant political parties. Continue reading......
Neil Hamilton looked smug no change there while Angela Eagle sounded just bored 'The last polling booth in Italy is now closed," said Adam Boulton, a testy Sky anchor, seemingly implying that the Italians alone had kept him waiting longer than he would have liked. "And I can now tell you that the three main parties are telling us they expect Ukip to get the largest share of the popular vote."...