MAIL Online: Europe was leaning to the right tonight as exit polls showed voters were backing conservative parties amid a global economic crisis and anti-Islamic sentiments.
The British National Party could win its first seat in the EU parliament if the results elsewhere follow in the UK.
It comes after the party won its first seat on a county council at Thursday's local elections.
While official results for the elections to the European Parliament were not expected until late this evening or early tomorrow, the polls showed right-leaning governments edging the opposition in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere.
With most votes counted in Austria, the main far-right party was gaining strongly while the Social Democrats, the main party in the governing coalition, lost substantial ground.
The big winner was the rightist Freedom Party which, according to polls, more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13 per cent of the vote.
It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform, with posters proclaiming 'The Occident in Christian hands' and describing today as 'the day of reckoning.'
In the Netherlands, exit polls predicted the anti-Islamic party of Geert Wilders - who was banned from Britain earlier this year - would win more than 15 per cent of the country's votes, muscling in on the ruling alliance of Conservatives and Socialists. >>> | Sunday, June 07, 2009
