Shock swing towards euroscepticism in European Parliament elections

With most of the results counted, it is clear that smaller, eurosceptic or populist parties have triumphed at the expense of more well-established parties. The biggest shock for the establishment undoubtedly comes from the UK, where the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which wants complete withdrawal from the EU, looks to have secured 20 percent of the vote and 17 seats. This result would place the UKIP third behind the Conservatives (polling 22 percent at the time of writing) and Labour (also on 22 percent). And it would leave the more established Liberal Democrats trailing in their wake on 14 percent. Liberal leader Graham Watson said he regretted the fact that "parliament will have a greater number of anti-Europeans" adding that they will be rather "unproductive members". Pat Cox, outgoing head of the European Parliament, put a brave face on the result by saying that "though significant and a new dimension in its scale, it must be put in context". He said it only represented 10-15% of MEPs. Eurosceptics also achieved a major victory in Sweden, where the recently-formed EU-critical Junilistan came third in the election, securing 14.4 percent of the vote and three seats in the new European Parliament. It was also a memorable night for the populist Vlaams Blok in Belgium. The far-right party scored 14.3 percent (at the time of writing), making it the second biggest party in Belgium.