A common problem but plenty of different ways to respond

Focus on national elections

Germany's series of elections this year, culminating in the national elections on 27 September, has given extra impetus to the European Parliament polls, because the main parties are conducting themselves with an eye to the September vote.
The centre-left SPD has launched a strong campaign against its rivals on the right and on the left. Its election posters say a vote for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would mean wage-dumping, while it berates the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) as the party of “finance sharks”. A poster attacking the Left party shows a hairdrier alongside an accusation of producing hot air.
Recent opinion polls put the governing CDU ahead with 34-37%, with the SPD on 27%. Support for the FDP is estimated at 13-14% while the Greens are polling at 12%. The Left party of former finance minister Oskar Lafontaine, which has a strong base in the former east German states, is estimated to have around 10%. SPD support is currently ahead of 2004, when it won only 21.5% of the vote, its lowest result since 1945.
One potential casualty is the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), which needs to get 5% of all votes in Germany to hold on to seats in the Parliament. It received 8% of the vote in 2004 but is facing competition from the Free Voters party.

In Poland, the ruling Civic Platform (PO) party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is popular with the electorate. This could translate into an increase in the PO's number of seats from the current level of 15 to 22 or even 27 in one optimistic scenario.
The Polish Peasant Party has three MEPs in the Union for a Europe of the Nations (UEN) group and is expected to hold on to these seats. The Polish Social Democrats are expected to fare badly compared to 2004, losing three or more of their current nine seats. The Law and Justice Party of President Lech Kaczysnki, which currently has seven MEPs sitting in the UEN group, could increase its share of the vote and number of MEPs.
The local chances of Libertas, the anti-Lisbon treaty party, have been damaged by critical comments from its candidates in Ireland about migrating Polish workers, which have gone down very badly in Poland.

In France, voters will be giving their verdict on the first two years of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency. His UMP party, which has consistently led in opinion polls, has campaigned heavily on the perceived success of last year's French EU presidency.
The opposition Socialist Party (PS) has argued that voters should use the election to punish Sarkozy for his performance as president.
The UMP also stands accused of schizophrenia on Turkish membership of the EU and of unfair behaviour in allowing its chief candidate, Michel Barnier, to carry on serving as agriculture minister during the campaign.
The election is in part a contest to help determine who is the most credible anti-Sarkozy candidate for the presidential elections in 2012. Candidates include leading lights in the PS and François Bayrou, leader of the centrist MoDem party, which is currently polling in third place.
The election will help reveal whether the New Anticapitalist Party, led by former postman Olivier Besancenot, can establish itself as a serious political force. The party, which was created only in February, is currently polling at around 6%, ahead of other far-left groups.
It will also be interesting to see if voters turn out for the Front National or whether they support the Mouvement pour la France party, which has been rebranded as the French Libertas.

In Spain, voters are going to the polls in what is little more than a two-horse race between the governing socialist (PSOE) party and the centre-right Partido Popular (PP).
The PP has failed to profit from being in opposition and a lead of 15 percentage points has now been cut back so that the two parties are neck-and-neck – not least because the PP is compromised by weakness and dissension among its leadership, as well as by shadows cast by an ongoing corruption investigation into some of its regional leaders.
The subordination of European issues to national concerns was further illustrated this week (May 26) in the first major television debate of the campaign.
The heads of the lists of the two main parties focused almost exclusively on the same discussions that have divided the Spanish public and parliament since national elections last year.
Jaime Mayor Oreja, the star candidate of PP, focused his criticisms on the high levels of unemployment in Spain, and threats to the sanctity of the castilian language and the protection of the unborn.
Juan Fernando López Aguilar, the champion of the PSOE, counter-attacked with accusations that the PP is a party of the 19th century with such extreme right-wing views that it would return Spain to the days of Franco.

The UK's governing Labour party appears set for a difficult election. An opinion poll published by the Mail on Sunday on 17 May showed that Labour's support had fallen by six percentage points to 17%, the same level as the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP).
The government was already unpopular, but the election has been further complicated by a scandal over MPs' abuses of their allowances for second homes. The Daily Telegraph newspaper has been publishing details of MPs' claims for expenses for items as bizarre as cleaning a moat and setting up an island for ducks. All the main parties are suffering, with the Mail on Sunday's poll showing support for the Conservatives down six points to 30% and the Liberal Democrats on 15%.
David Cameron has been positioning the Conservatives as a government-in-waiting. That image may be damaged if voters punish his party for dubious expense claims by Conservative MPs.
It may be that the beneficiaries of the scandal will be the fringe parties. Opinion polls published in the Guardian newspaper last Friday put UKIP's likely support at 10%, with the Greens on 9% and the far-right British National Party on 1%. The poll also showed that more than two-thirds of voters would base their decision on national rather than European issues.

In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi continues to be an electoral phenomenon. Despite the economic woes, Berlusconi is far outstripping his opponents. 
His grip on political life has been strengthened by merging Alleanza Nazionale into the new People of Liberty Party. The Democratic Party, a
recent merger between the centre-left Democrats of the Left and the centre-right Margherita coalition led by former prime minister Romano Prodi, has not emerged as a credible force to threaten Berlusconi's majority. 
The Forza Italia party, which preceded People of Liberty, had 24 MEPs and could gain up to eight more if the former Alleanza Nazionale MEPs are re-elected. This will give People of Liberty a stronger role within the European People's Party. Berlusconi has already proposed Mario Mauro as his candidate to be the next president of the Parliament. 
Most media attention has focused on the ‘starlets' fielded as candidates by Berlusconi – including a former Miss Italy. Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, described the choice as “shamelessly trashy”.