The centre-right European People's Party was yesterday jubilantly claiming that the European elections and the forthcoming defection to them of French Gaullists will give the party a near-50 seat lead over the Socialists.
With most of the votes counted, the EPP, the umbrella organisation that groups Christian Democrat and Conservative parties from across the EU, was on track to claim 230 of the parliament's 626 seats, 50 more than the Socialists who have traditionally dominated the assembly.
The centrist Liberal Democrats under Mr Pat Cox MEP were on course to strengthen their position as the parliament's third force with gains set to lift their number of deputies from 42 to around 50.
Meanwhile, the Greens were poised to gain 10 deputies, to 37. The final allocations of seats is not yet complete.
Austria: The Social Democrats, the dominant party in the ruling coalition, tightened their grip on power ahead of a general election in October with a two percentage point increase to 32 per cent in their vote on elections in 1996. The Conservative People's Party, the junior coalition partner, came second with 30.64 per cent.
Mr Jorg Haider's far-right Freedom Party, which scored its biggest election success to date in 1996, came third yesterday with 23.48 per cent, down four points.
Belgium: Counting delayed by general election but overall picture is similar with losses for both Flemish and Wallonian Socialists and Christian Social parties and gains for the Liberal, Greens and a strengthening of the far-right Vlaams Blok in Flanders.
Denmark: Turnout was down a little at 49.9 per cent and Denmark's Liberal Party came out on top, winning five seats - one up on 1994 - as pro-European parties took 10 of the traditionally Euro-sceptic country's 16 seats in the assembly.
The ruling Social Democratic party maintained its poor European form and held on to its three seats, while its government ally, the Radical Liberal Party, kept its one. The anti-EU June Movement took one seat off its Euro-sceptical rival to bring it up to three. The Euro-sceptic Socialist People's Party retained its one seat, while the Conservatives lost two of their three seats and the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party enters Parliament with one seat.
Finland: Finnish political analysts attribute the success of the Conservative Party - up by five points from the previous 1996 elections - in part to a local celebrity, the former racing car champion, Mr Ari Vatanen. The CP garnered 26.1 per cent of the vote and kept its four assembly seats. The governing Social Democrats took 17.8 per cent of the vote, losing one seat and ending up with only three.
France: The ruling Socialists held up well, taking around 22 per cent of the vote, despite the losses incurred by the left in other countries. The performance of their partners in government was mixed, however, with gains by the Greens and losses by the Communists.
The Gaullist opposition party of conservative President Jacques Chirac, registered a stinging defeat to the benefit of the dissident Gaullist nationalist and Eurosceptic, Mr Charles Pasqua.
Mr Pasqua said last night he could found a new party after taking more votes than the mainstream Gaullist RPR party headed by Mr Nicolas Sarkozy.
Germany: The opposition CDU took 47.8 per cent of the vote, against 31.4 per cent for the SPD and 6.8 for the Greens, the two government parties.
The CDU had gained 10 percentage points to claim an absolute majority of the country's seats - up from 47 to 53 seats while the SPD was down from 40 to 33. The Greens held only seven of the 12 seats.
The reformed communist Party of Democratic Socialism polled 5.8 per cent, up from 4.7 per cent, winning seats for the first time (6), while the liberal Free Democrats again fell short of the 5 per cent hurdle required to win seats.
Greece: Turnout down slightly at 70.14 per cent. A five percentage point fall in support for the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) saw them lose one seat (9) to the Communists (3). New Democracy, the conservative opposition, held its own (9). The nationalist Political Spring lost both its seats. The Democratic Social Movement gained two.
Italy: The combined votes for the ruling coalition of the Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema, hovered around 37 per cent of the vote, while the centre-right led by Mr Silvio Berlusconi, a former prime minister, edged ahead with 39 per cent, according to the projections. The star performance was that of the ougoing Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino's Radical list at fourth place with 9.6 per cent compared to the Radical Party's 2.1 per cent five years ago.
A new party co-founded by the President-designate of the Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, the Democrats, also drew sizeable support with 7.5 per cent - the fifth most popular party, and were seen taking votes from Mr D'Alema's coalition. Fianna Fail's would-be partners in Union for Europe, the reformed far-right Alleanza Nacionale, saw their vote slump two per cent to 10.5 per cent.
Luxembourg: the outgoing Commission President, Mr Jacques Santer, was one of two members of the Christian Democrat Chreschtlech Sozial Vollekspartei (CSV) elected. Their coalition partners, the socialist Parti Ouvrier Socialiste Luxembourgeois (POSL), also retained their two seats despite a crushing defeat in national elections on the same day. The liberal Demokratesch Partei (DP), big winners in the national poll, took their seats to two at the expense of the Greens. Domestically the election results raise the possibility of a CSV-DP coalition.
Netherlands: The opposition Christian Democrats (CDA) (9), and governing socialists PvDA (7) and D66 liberals (3) all lost one seat each. The big gain is for the Greens who gained three seats (4). Turnout was at a record low of 30 per cent.
Portugal: Turnout was up five points to 40 per cent and Portugal also bucked the trend with gains for the Socialist government of two seats (now 12) while the Liberal opposition (PSD) lost out further to both left and right smaller coalitions at one seat each.
Spain: The ruling Popular Party came out on top but lost ground to the opposition Socialist Party. The PP was set to claim 27 of the 64 Spanish seats, a loss of one. The Socialist Party (PSOE) cornered 35.3 per cent of the vote, up sharply from 30.8 per cent five years ago and enough to give it 24 seats, two more than it currently holds.
The more radical United Left party was the biggest loser, its vote plunging to 5.8 per cent from 13.4 per cent. Several small regional and nationalist parties claimed seats for the first time, including one for Euskal Herritarrok, the political wing of ETA, and one for the Greens.
Sweden: The Social Democrats lost one seat (now 6) but remained the country's largest party, but the Liberals, led by a charismatic ex-cleaning lady tripled their 1995 results. The party's main rival, the Conservatives, came in second with just over 20 per cent of the vote, while the Liberal Party boosted its result to 13.8 per cent, up from 4.8 in 1995.
The anti-EU Socialist Left, who with the Greens constitute the governing party's main allies, garnered around 16 per cent of the vote, up from 12.9 in 1995. The Greens were the big losers, nearly halving their score from roughly 17 per cent to less than 10 per cent of the vote.
UK: With turnout an abysmal 23 per cent, Labour was clearly unable to get out its voters and suffered a humiliating setback compounded by the move to a form of PR voting. It will hold only 29 of its 62 seats, the Tories to take 36. Smaller parties did well with three for the UK Independence Party, two for the Welsh Nationalist Plaid Cymru and two for the Greens. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party and the Conservatives picked up two seats each, Labour three and the Liberal Democrats one.
Mr Pat Cox's Liberal Democrats likely to be a stronger third force; in Austria, Mr Jorg Haider's far-right Freedom Party came third; in France, Mr Charles Pasqua talks of a new Gaullist nationalist party. In Italy the centre-right edged ahead of the ruling coalition of the Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema.