Romania's first European Elections reject far right extremism

2.48.00pm GMT Mon 26th Nov 2007

Graham Watson, leader of the Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament, responded this evening to initial results following the close of polling in Romania's first elections for the European Parliament since becoming a full Member State of the EU on 1st January this year.

"I have spoken to PM Tariceanu and congratulated him on the results! Liberals can be satisfied with at least 6 MEPs to work with in the European Parliament as champions of openness, tolerance and entrepreneurship.

However the overall turnout was disappointingly low which suggests that Romania still needs to be convinced of the importance of decision-making at EU level.

As concerns the parallel vote on the referendum on electoral reform, I suspect most people understood that it was not aimed at improving the governing of the country but was part of the on-going political battle which Basescu is playing in Romania.

The confirmation that the Greater Romania Party failed to reach the threshold is one more nail in the coffin for the far-right forces in the European Parliament and shows that the Romanian people are committed to democratic representation at EU level."