Iraq a Vote Loser for Bush's European Allies

[struggle4progress]

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The British and Italian premiers are U.S. President George W. Bush's closest remaining European allies in the unpopular Iraq conflict and key players in his "coalition of the willing". Analysis indicates Iraq policy has cost both prime ministers heavily at the ballot box. Parties aggressively opposed to the war were clear winners in both countries, a pattern that was repeated in other EU countries where Iraq was a major issue.

In the UK local elections, Tony Blair's once-mighty Labour Party came in an unprecedented third. It got an abysmal 26% of the vote, and in the EU elections did even worse, receiving just above 22% support. These are the worse results in living memory for a governing British party and will likely result in increased pressure on Blair from politicians fearful of losing their seats in a general election possibly less than a year away.

Prime Minister Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party suffered a string of defeats in the local elections as well as a major setback in the EU poll, where its support dropped to about 22.5%. In the last general election, Forza Italia took 29.4% of the vote and 25.2% in the previous European Parliament election. Berlusconi had repeatedly told Italians that his party would capture at least 25% of the vote. The poll was widely seen as a crucial test of the premier's popularity.
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While many governing parties suffered losses in the 25-nation European Union elections for the 732-seat European Parliament, Iraq was a significant factor in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.
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http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/1877.cfm