Centre right tightens grip on Europe

Ruling centre-right parties in France, Germany Italy and Poland rode to victory in elections to the European parliament, but elsewhere in Europe a clutch of governments suffered a mauling at the hands of recession-hit voters

• - Jun 7 2009 Brown hit by fresh Labour poll defeat The UK prime minister faces a showdown with his MPs after a humiliating night at the polls, as a slump in Labour support helped allow the far-right British National party win its first European parliament seat - Jun 7 2009 Boost for Merkel as CDU wins most votes
• Angela Merkel won an electoral boost four months before she runs for a second term as German chancellor as her Christian Democratic Union staged the best performance of all German parties at the European election - Jun 7 2009 Sarkozy defies trend to claim victory
• Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party won 27.7% of the vote in European parliamentary elections, making him the first French president to lead his party to victory in a European ballot since 1979 - Jun 8 2009 Irish governing party faces heavy defeat
• Fianna Fáil was facing the possible loss of its European Parliament seat for Dublin to Eurosceptic rivals, in what would be a blow ahead of the second Lisbon treaty referendum.
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http://www.ft.com/indepth/european-elections-2009