Christian Democrats trounce government

Germany's opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) swept ahead of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's centre-left government, capturing 48 per cent of the vote - 10 points up from the last European election in 1994. Mr Schroder's Social Democrats (SPD) dropped just 1 per cent to 31 per cent but the Greens saw their share of the vote fall from 10 per cent to less than 7 per cent.

The ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which draws almost all its support from the east of the country, looked set to enter the European Parliament for the first time with 6 per cent of the vote.

Germany's outgoing Commissioner, Ms Monika Wulf-Mathies - herself a Social Democrat - described the result as "catastrophic and unfair". She claimed the opposition parties had fooled the electorate into believing they could influence domestic policy by voting against the government.

The government attempted to play down the result, pointing to the low turnout of 50 per cent of eligible voters - 10 per cent down on 1994. But there is little doubt that yesterday's vote represents Mr Schroder's biggest setback since his election last September.

Most analysts put the opposition's success down to popular dissatisfaction with the government's economic policies - particularly with Mr Schroder's signal failure to reduce unemployment. The Chancellor acknowledged that the result was a defeat for his party and he promised to work harder to improve the lot of middle income families.

The Christian Democrats blamed Mr Schroder for the fall in the value of the euro since its launch in January, arguing that the weakness of Germany's economy is dragging down the rest of the euro area.

The Greens were comforting themselves last night with the knowledge that, in view of their internal divisions over Kosovo, they were fortunate to poll more than the 5 per cent needed to win seats in the European Parliament.

Austria's Social Democrats looked set to emerge as the largest party in the country's second European elections, polling an estimated 33 per cent of the vote. The conservative People's Party is expected to win 30 per cent, leaving the far-right Freedom Party in third place with 24 per cent - more than 3 per cent down on the last election.