Analysis
By Jan Repa BBC Europe analyst

In the last four national elections among continental EU countries, centre-right parties have pushed out the centre-left - in Denmark, Italy, Austria, and now Portugal.

Four other EU countries, all with centre-left governments, face parliamentary elections later this year - France, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden.

Commentators have spoken of a new centre-right tide in Europe.

A notable exception appears to be Britain, where Tony Blair's New Labour won a second landslide victory last year.

Gap with US

Berlusconi (elected 2001) and Jose Aznar (2000)

However, many of the Blair government's social and economic policies would be described as well out on the centre-right in most continental countries.

The European Union has placed severe constraints on the economic options of member states - through regulations governing employees' rights, through the establishment of the euro and an independent European Bank, and through agreements on economic stability.

This has provided a challenge and a stimulus to centre-right parties, which have stressed the widening gap between European and American economic performance and the longer-term issue of Europe's competitivenss in the global market.

There are two qualifications, which need to be made here.

The first is that these centre-right parties remain broadly supportive of the European Union, with its supra-national institutions and aspirations.

Xenophobia

The second is that, in a number of cases, where the centre-right has returned to power, it has been forced to do so with the support of smaller right-wing populist parties, which are often openly protectionist and xenophobic in character.

The fall of the Portuguese Socialists was the latest in a series of defeats which could be set to continue across Europe:

• France - there is every possibility that centre-right parties will defeat the governing centre-left in parliamentary elections in June - despite the fact that Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has privatised more state companies than his centre-right predecessor.
• Germany - The centre-right alliance of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats led by Bavarian prime minister Edmund Stoiber, has a serious chance of defeating the Social Democrats under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in September's federal elections. Stoiber has voiced anti-immigration views - but some observers doubt his willingness radically to reform Germany's protective labour laws and other economic rigidities.
• Italy - Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi defeated the left in last year's elections. He governs in coalition with the ex-fascist National Alliance and the anti-immigrant Northern League.
• Austria - The centre-right People's Party governs in coalition with the right-wing populist Freedom Party.
• Spain - Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his People's Party won a second term in 2000 - when the socialists suffered their worst result in 20 years.
• Norway - the Labour Party lost elections last year. The new government rules with the support of the right-wing Progress Party - which wants repatriation of refugees and immigration quotas.
• Denmark - A right wing coalition came to power last year. The far-right People's Party, which came third, says there are now too many Muslims in a Christian country.