Contrasting French, German Votes Taint EU Unity

BRUSSELS -- The two nations at the heart of Europe's drive for unity went different ways in the European elections.Germany voted firmly for stability within the European Union. But in France, radical and anti-EU parties rocked the establishment.Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the longest serving head of government in the EU, got a vote of confidence as a steady hand on the tiller. After 12 years in power, the ardent backer of European Union is hoping to repeat Sunday's surprise Euro-vote success in October's national elections.Results released Monday from elections to the EU's parliament showed support for Kohl defying opinion polls and crushing aspiring anti-EU movements on the far left and right.In France, the picture was a complete contrast. Prime Minister Edouard Balladur's center-right coalition garnered only a quarter of the vote, and the traditionally strong Socialists of President Fran?ois Mitterrand scraped up a miserable 14.5 percent.Communists, extreme-rightists, a new stridently anti-EU nationalist movement and a Socialist splinter group led by a scandal-tainted businessman all made gains in France.Balladur said the French "clearly showed their worry about the future of the European community" but insisted the "vast majority" doesn't reject the idea of union.France and Germany, joining in the European Union after centuries of conflict, have been the motor of the EU's drive for closer integration, promoting such measures as a single currency and joint foreign policy.Their continued close cooperation is considered vital as the union works toward a major conference scheduled for 1996 designed to tighten ties between the EU members.They link up for a year July 1 as first Germany, then France takes over the presidency of the 12-nation EU.But before the European Parliament election results, German diplomats expressed concern French enthusiasm for a closer union was waning.After Sunday, some French politicians were sharing those fears. "More than one French person in four voted for the extreme right," noted Elisabeth Guigou, a Socialist and former European affairs minister. "We need a serious political renewal."The contrast between the two nations underlines the difficulties in trying to spot continent-wide trends from the voting in all 12 EU nations Thursday and Sunday.In most, sitting governments lost votes, as expected with Europe still trying to recover from an economic slump.Britain's ruling Conservative Party collapsed to its worst national election defeat since records were first kept there in 1832. Spain's Socialist government was punished for failing to beat unemployment and a series of scandals.But Kohl increased his support, as did Italy's new conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.Although other ruling parties, including those in Belgium, Portugal, Luxembourg and Greece, all lost votes, opposition parties were most disappointed with their low gains."Euro-skeptic" parties scored well in Denmark and Portugal. And the generally low turn out was seen as indicating a lack of enthusiasm for the union. But there were also positive signs for those favoring a stronger EU.In a separate referendum, Austrians voting to allow the Alpine nation to join the EU on Jan. 1. That boosted hopes Finland, Norway and Sweden to follow suit in similar referenda this autumn.