Iraq Coalition Allies Face EU Election Backlash

Iraq Coalition Allies Face EU Election Backlash

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By Paul Taylor, European Affairs Editor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European governments with troops in Iraq (news - web sites) face an electoral backlash against their support for President Bush (news - web sites) in European Parliament elections on June 10-13.






Opposition parties from Lisbon to Budapest are campaigning on a "troops out" platform, with some using posters of the abuse of Iraq prisoners by U.S. soldiers to dramatize their assault on European leaders depicted as Bush's accomplices.


Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) and Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy could be among the casualties.


By contrast Spain's governing Socialists are set to win a second victory in three months due to Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's swift move to bring home troops sent by his conservative predecessor Jose Maria Aznar, polls show.


Voters in all 25 European Union (news - web sites) member states will from June 10-13 directly elect 732 members of the EU parliament according to different national voting systems.


Nowhere is the battle of Baghdad raging more fiercely than in the streets and parliament of Italy, which is to debate an opposition motion to withdraw some 2,700 troops from Iraq after Berlusconi's return from White House talks with Bush.


The main opposition Democrats of the Left have put the notorious picture of a hooded and wired Iraqi prisoner standing on a box on campaign posters, with the question: "Fighting the atrocities of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) with other atrocities?"


The center-left Olive Tree coalition is using the image of popular European Commission (news - web sites) President Romano Prodi, although he is not a candidate, on its election placards with the slogan: "Iraq, a mistaken war."


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