Europe's voters delivered a massive vote of no confidence in their governments in European Parliament elections by hammering ruling parties and staying away from the ballot boxes in record numbers.
As vote counting neared a finish today in the biggest transnational election in history, staged just six weeks after the European Union expanded from 15 to 25 states with 450 million citizens, it highlighted public alienation from remote EU institutions with a record low turnout.
In mid-term protest votes, electors punished British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair for his role in the US-led Iraq war, and governing parties in France, Germany and Poland for economic stagnation, high unemployment and painful social reforms.
Only the recently elected Spanish and Greek governments escaped the voters' wrath, amplifying their national victories.
A mere 44.2 per cent of nearly 350 million eligible voters bothered to cast ballots in the four-day exercise in cross-border democracy, the lowest turnout since direct elections for the Strasbourg-based assembly began in 1979.
In an irony of history, voter participation was even weaker in the 10 new, mainly ex-communist east European member states, where it averaged just 26 per cent, apparently due to voter fatigue after referendums last year on joining the EU.
"Today's results, up to now, appear to be the worst," outgoing parliament president Mr Pat Cox said, lamenting the narrow domestic focus of the debate. "Europe has been too absent in too many campaigns."
In Britain and Poland, hardline Eurosceptics made stunning gains, sending strident new voices of hostility to European integration to sit in the increasingly powerful EU legislature.
The UK Independence Party, which won its first three seats in 1999, was on course to grab 12 this time, while opposition parties in Poland beat the ruling Socialists into fourth place. In the Czech Republic, rightist and leftist opposition parties beat the ruling Social Democrats into third place.
German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats endured their worst result since World War Two while French President Mr Jacques Chirac's centre-right UMP party suffered its second electoral defeat in three months.
Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party also lost ground, although it suffered a milder anti-war backlash than other US allies in Britain, Denmark or Portugal.
The overall balance in parliament, which has growing powers over EU spending, financial regulation, food safety and environmental rules, was little changed.
The centre-right European People's Party was set to remain the biggest group with 272 of the 732 seats, the Socialists came second with 201, the Liberals third with 66 and the Greens fourth with 42.
Two possible contenders for the EU executive's top job - Belgian Prime Minister Mr Guy Verhofstadt and Luxembourg Prime Minister Mr Jean-Claude Juncker - had mixed fortunes at the polls.
Mr Verhofstadt's Flemish Liberals were pushed into third place by the far-right anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok in regional polls in Flanders, but he vowed his federal government would soldier on.
Mr Juncker, a Christian Democrat and the EU's longest-serving head of government, was easily re-elected in the 450,000-strong Grand Duchy. He has insisted he does not want the Brussels job despite widespread support among fellow EU leaders.