Europe lurched to the right-wing in elections results declared on Sunday. In Poland, the centre-right Civic Platform stunned themselves, gaining 30 percent of votes for a landslide victory which saw their conservative rivals Law & Justice (PiS) drop in support. In Britain, the Conservatives were favourites in initial results recorded before midnight, but there were also big wins for ultra-right parties such as the British National Party which gained its first-ever European Parliament seat, while the UK Independence Party also saw support grow. The BNP's Andrew Brons won a seat in Yorks & Humberside. Meanwhile, Labour looked set for a rout in Scotland after Labour's own heartland of Wales saw them lose 20 percent support while the Conservatives gained their first Welsh seats since 1918.

The gains by Poland's Civic Platform will cause problems for Britain's Conservatives, however. The Conservatives want to exit the centre-right and pro-federal EPP group in Strasbourg, and have already aligned with a Czech group. But the Conservatives also were muted to want to work with Poland's PiS, who also want to exit EPP to form a new group in Strasbourg. That looked less likely after PiS's fall in support.

375 million across the European Union were eligible to vote this weekend. But turnout for the European elections looked to be the lowest on record at just 43 percent. Apathy and votes for extreme parties were blamed on the global economic crisis, and in Britain on the Westminster MPs expenses scandal.