In most other countries such as Sweden, Finland, Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg only minor changes occurred. In Sweden the governing Social Democrats lost one seat to the Center Party, in Austria they gained one from the far-right Liberals. In Denmark the Conservatives lost two seats, one to the Liberals and one to the Far-Right Party. In Portugal the governing Socialists maintained their position as first party gaining votes from the Communists as well as from the People's Party. In Greece the governing Socialists lost to the Conservatives' New Democracy, which became first party, and to a New Independent Left.
New duties for the EU-parliament
Though the duty of forming a government is not yet among the prerogatives of the EU-parliament, the electoral result is already complicating the formation of the next EU-Commission. Since the Amsterdam-treaty introduced at least a confidence vote on the Commission in Parliament, the designated President of the Commission, Italy's former prime minister Romano Prodi, is now under pressure from two fronts. The national governments, who have the right to propose each one or two members of the Commission, will try to use this prerogative to nominate mainly Socialist commissioners. But in September the whole Commission must face the confidence vote in Strasbourg, where the Christian Democrats are now the biggest block. Wilfried Martens, president of the EPP, has already warned Prodi, asking him to keep his independence and not to give up his prerogatives in forming the Commission, since otherwise a reaction in the confidence vote could not be excluded.
It is a lucky circumstance that at least Prodi should be a good choice for both, Socialist and Popular parties. Though a former prime minister of a center-left coalition, Prodi has his political grass roots in the Italian Democrazia Cristiana, which was only a few years ago, alongside with the German CDU, one of the two pilasters of the European Popular Party.
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