BBC在线收听下载:欧洲议会选举的混乱选战

BBC news with Sue Montgomery.

In the European Parliamentary elections, early results suggest that the previously dominant centre-left and centre-right blocks have lost ground to smaller parties. Some far-right groups and the Greens have made gains. Voter turnout was the highest in twenty five years. The new parliament will be more fragmented, which could make its task of shaping EU legislation more difficult. Katya Adler is our Europe editor. What will be key now after these elections because MEPs have an influence here, is who will be chosen as the next president of the European Commission? What political flavor and attitudes will that person have? And also as a result of these European Parliamentary elections, there has been a big knock-on effects on national governments. Germany's government, that coalition government is in trouble. In Greece, the Prime Minister has called a general election because he performed so badly. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, the firebrand foreign minister has done so well. He will want to push that for a general election because he has huge ambitions to be the next prime minister. In France, early indications showed far-right parties taking the lead while in the Netherlands, the Labour Party headed for an unexpected win as the far-right vote collapsed.

The Socialist Party were ahead in Spain where they've built on the recent general election victory. The Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned mainstream conservatives against working with far-right parties. The message and the unequivocal choice shown by all Spaniards at all three levels of the administration, local, regional and European is to progress and to not step backwards. It's the responsibility of the People's Party and citizens to not support the far-right, and doing so won't be understood in Europe by Liberal and Conservative Parties.

In Britain, where the country's delayed departure from the EU dominated the election campaign, the Brexit Party swept into a strong lead and the governing Conservatives have slid into into fifth place. The Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage is projected to gain nearly a third of the national vote. Addressing his supporters, he said the results showed voters wanted to leave the EU at all costs by the October deadline. If we don't leave on October 31st, then the scores you've seen for the Brexit Party today will be repeated in a general election, and we are getting ready for it. Pro-European parties in Britain have also made big gains with the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats in second place.

BBC news.