Victory for Europe’s centre-right

Europe’s centre-right parties on Monday celebrated a resounding election victory that underlined the resilience of the European model of welfare state capitalism in the face of the worst recession since the 1930s. The centre-right emerged as the clear winner in elections to the European parliament, taking 263 seats in the 736-seat assembly, compared with 163 for socialists, 80 for centrist liberals and 52 for the Greens, according to provisional figures. A strong showing for nationalists and the far right in countries such as Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands and the UK will not prevent the centre-right and other mainstream parties from maintaining their dominance of the parliament.

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