Libertas flops as Ganley fails to win seat 

At time of writing, it seemed likely that Libertas, which earlier in the year claimed it could win up to 100 seats, would win just one mandate, that of sitting French MEP Philippe de Villiers. 

In fact, de Villiers, whose Mouvement pour la France joined forces with Libertas, also suffered a severe loss at these elections, reducing its overall number of MEPs from three to one. 

Ganley narrowly lost the final seat in Ireland north-west and subsequently demanded a recount of some ballot boxes, claiming they had been incorrectly opened at the counting centre. They will be re-checked this morning, but the recount is not expected to make any difference to the result. 

Elsewhere, Libertas's night ended in abject disappointment as they failed to win any seats in Latvia, Poland or the Czech Republic, countries where they had a chance to make gains. 

In Germany, a country Ganley had pinpointed as a prime target for Libertas in a February interview with EurActiv, Libertas's partners AUF (Party for Work, Environment and Family) did not even reach the 3% electoral threshold. 

Ganley to stay out of Lisbon II in Ireland 

The result will be seen as a fillip to leaders of the Irish political establishment, who are hoping to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty later this year. 

Ganley, who spearheaded the successful 'no' campaign in last year's Irish referendum (EurActiv 13/06/08), earlier this year said that he would not campaign against Lisbon for a second time if he failed to win a seat.