Prague - The official winner of the European parliament elections in the Czech Republic is the Civic Democratic party (ODS) that has bounced back from being voted down by the Social Democrats (ČSSD) in March this year.
ODS led by former PM Mirek Topolánek won 30.8 percent of the vote, which translates into 9 seats in the EP. It is also an 8 percent lead to 22.9 that went to ČSSD.
But ČSSD cannot be disappointed. The increase of the euro-parliament seats from 2 to 7 is seen by many as victory, too.
Despite the fall in the vote from 9.6 percent to 7.8 percent, the Christian Democrats emerged as the other winner with one more additional EP seat.
The fourth party in the former ruling coalition - the Greens - fell short of the needed 5 percent of the vote. The meagre 1.6 gain indicates the party lost popularity due to internal bickering.
The unreformed Communist Party lost two seats by winning 14.5 percent of the vote, compared to 20.3 percent which the communists won in the 2004 polls.
Unlike in other European countries, the Czechs did not vote for the far right parties on a massive scale. The Workers' Party gained 1.1 percent which entitles them to a state subsidy of 30 CZK per a vote but did not get them close to the needed 5 percent. The far-right National Party and Republicans together were voted by less than 1 percent of the Czechs.
The 2009 EU poll turnout was 28.22 percent of the Czech electorate, which equals to the 2004 EP balloting (28.32 percent).
The turnout continentwide was the lowest ever since direct EP elections started thirty years ago with Slovakia getting the lowest score for the second time in a row.
