BRUSSELS -- The European parliamentary elections June 13 turned out largely as forecast. Despite a sharp fillip in Britain's voter turnout, spurred by the rise of the anti-European U.K. Independence Party, or UKIP, voter turnout as a whole continued its generation-long decline across Europe, with less than half the electorate bothering to participate. There were almost no trends to speak of. Voters did not swing to the left or the right; instead, they churned -- voting against incumbents.
In France, the Socialists did better than expected with 31 seats, but in Germany they hit a postwar low with 23 seats. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi's forces lost to Romano Prodi's rainbow coalition, while the Spanish Socialist honeymoon meant the left gained at the expense of the conservative Partido Populare.
If Iraq was a factor, it had a mixed impact. Pro-Bush parties did badly in Italy and Spain, but Germany's Social Democratic Party was hammered despite its antiwar stance. In Britain all three antiwar parties had mixed fortunes. George Galloway's Respect Party barely registered in the polls beyond London and Leicester. The Greens held their two seats but slipped back in other regions, and the Liberal Democrats' advance was minimal.