Peilingen wijzen op verlies regeringspartijen in meeste EU-lidstaten tijdens Europese verkiezingen (en)

Met dank overgenomen van EUobserver (EUOBSERVER) i, gepubliceerd op woensdag 2 juni 2004, 9:54.
Auteur: | By Honor Mahony

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Governing parties across the EU are set to be hit hard in the European elections in just under two weeks time, according to a new survey on EU citizens' voting intentions.

Published on Tuesday (1 June), the EOS Gallup poll conducted in 21 of the 25 member states shows that for most countries, the elections for European Parliament will be a warning for the ruling party.

Some of the biggest losses will occur in Poland and Germany.

Free fall in Poland

According to the survey, in Warsaw, the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), and its newly created splinter, the Social Democratic party, are set to be pulverised in elections and will gain just 6% each of the vote - barely above the five percent threshold.

Meanwhile, their like-minded colleagues in Berlin, the Social Democrats, are to get 25% of the vote - about half of what the opposition Christian Democrats are likely to get (49%).

The UK's labour party are to get 23% of the vote while the eurosceptic Conservatives and anti-Europe UK Independence party are to get (30% and 10% of the vote respectively).

Left-leaning parties in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Hungary are also in for a bashing.

No better for centre-right parties

The ruling centre-right is not likely to fare any better. In France, President Jacques Chirac's conservative UMP will gain 20% of the vote to be beaten by the Socialists with 28%.

Conservative parties in the Netherlands, Portugal, Estonia and Slovakia are also going to get a wake up call.

Bucking the trend

However, there are some governments bucking the trend.

Spain's recently elected Socialist government is to come out top in the polls and may even improve their ratings, as could the liberals in Denmark and the centre-right in Finland.

The Maltese Nationalist Party, Ireland's conservative Fianna Fail and Slovenia's liberals are also set to stay in the lead.

The poll results are based on the answers of 700 telephone interviews in each of the member states - however the results for Luxembourg, Greece and Italy were not published due to national legislation restrictions, while those for Belgium were not published because not enough interviews were carried out.

The European elections will take place across all 25 member states from 10-13 June.


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