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In the first ever European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic, the largely unreconstructed opposition Communist Party took second place with 20.26 percent, or six seats out of the 24 available for Czech Euro-MPs. Pavla Horakova asked the Communists' number one candidate, Miloslav Ransdorf, why he thought his party was so successful in the election.

In the past four days, over forty percent of the electorate in the twenty-five European Union member states went to the polls to elect new members to the European Parliament. Just a week before the elections, the EU commissioner for enlargement Gunter Verheugen warned voter apathy could result in the election of anti-EU factions: "I must say that I'm really worried about the fact that everywhere low turn out can produce strange results. There is the danger that even anti-European formations and organisations could win sufficient support to have

Both rightist and leftist opposition parties beat the ruling centre-left coalition in the European Parliament election at the weekend, just weeks after the Czech Republic joined the European Union. With all votes counted, the parliamentary opposition parties won 15 seats to just four for the coalition. The left-of-centre Social Democrat party won just two of 24 seats on offer.

The Czech Republic's first ever European Elections saw two non-parliamentary parties win enough votes to be represented in the European Parliament - the Independents (NEZ), grouped around former TV magnate Vladimir Zelezny, and the European Democrats (ED), which have joined forces with the Coalition of Independent Candidates (SNK). The bigger winners of the two are the latter grouping, winning 11 percent of the vote. Former Czech ambassador to Kuwait Jana Hybaskova is one of their three future Euro-deputies:

With thirty percent of support, the opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats are clearly the winners of the European parliamentary elections. Jan Zahradil, will be one of the nine Czech Civic Democrats spending the next five years in Brussels:

Although the European Parliamentary elections don't seem to have generated much interest among the Czech electorate, Radio Prague went to a polling booth in the Czech capital to ask those who did turn out why they thought it was important to vote.

This election has been a historic moment for me personally. After thirteen years living as a British citizen here in the Czech Republic, this was the first time I was able to take part in a Czech election: citizens from throughout the European Union are able to vote for Czech candidates to the European Parliament, that is as long as they do not vote elsewhere. As my name was ticked on the electoral roll and my 6-year-old son stuck the envelope with my vote into the ballot box, it seemed hard to believe that only fifteen years ago the Czech Republic

It's still too early for concrete results, but what the exit polls do seem to indicate clearly, is an extremely low turnout, at around 27%. Adam Cerny from the newspaper Hospodarske noviny has been studying the polls.

For the first time ever, Czechs are deciding who will represent them in the European Parliament. This Friday and Saturday over 8 million Czech voters are choosing among some 800 candidates fielded by 31 political parties and groupings. The Czech Republic will have 24 deputies in the 732-member European body.

Joining the European Union has highlighted many questions about the nature of the Czech European identity. For a historical perspective I spoke with Don Sparling from the Masaryk University in Brno. As a scholar in literature and cultural studies, he says that for much of European history Czech involvement has not been central, but the Czech lands have always managed to absorb and transform outside influences into something that is typically Czech. As various forces have swept across Europe over the centuries, it is very typical that Czechs have