Unlike the 2004 European elections, which displayed the second-order electoral characteristic of a protest vote against parties in power of both the left and the right, the 2009 European elections produced three categories of results that showed that voters dealt in different ways with parties affiliated to the EPP Group and to those within the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). In most countries, groups affiliated to the EPP defeated groups with a socialist inclination both by maintaining pole position as leading national party and in the voting figures, which saw the main opposition party take the lead. The voters? preference for the center-right was also confirmed where there was a redistribution of votes within a governing coalition.