It was a bad night for political parties of the left across Europe, and a good night for the centre-right, whose candidates swept to clear victories in France, Germany, Italy and the UK.

At a time of unprecedented insecurity, because of the global economic downturn, European voters clearly opted for the safety of the right, although only a minority bothered to vote in most countries. Leading centre-left parties including the German SPD, UK Labour party and France’s Socialist party, went down to bad defeats.