ASSOCIATED PRESS: BRUSSELS — Europe was leaning to the right Sunday as tens of millions of people voted in European Parliament elections, with conservative parties favored in many countries amid a global economic crisis.
Opinion polls showed right-leaning governments edging the opposition in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere. Conservative opposition parties were tied or ahead in Britain, Spain and some smaller countries.
Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and five other EU nations cast ballots in the last three days, while the rest of the 27-nation bloc voted Sunday. Results for most countries were expected later in the day.
The EU parliament has evolved over five decades from a consultative legislature to one with the power to vote on or amend two-thirds of all EU laws. It has 736 seats and lawmakers serve for five-year terms.
With most votes counted in Austria, the main rightist 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 more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13 percent of the vote. It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform, with posters proclaiming "The Occident in Christian hands" and describing Sunday as "the day of reckoning."
In the Netherlands, exit polls predicted Geert Wilders' anti-Islamic party would win more than 15 percent of the country's votes, bruising a ruling alliance of Conservatives and Socialists. >>> By Michael Weissenstein and Robert Wielaard | Sunday, June 07, 2009
