Story is here at the BBC, entitled “European voters punish the left”. (H/T Gateway Pundit via Commenter ECM)

Excerpt:

Centre-right parties have done well in elections to the European Parliament at the expense of the left, according to exit polls and initial results.

…Centre-left parties are projected to have lost almost a quarter of their seats, while the centre-right is only slightly down.…The BBC’s Jonny Dymond in Brussels says it looks as if the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) will continue to hold power in the parliament.

Some specifics:

• French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP trounced socialist opponents, while greens from the Europe-Ecologie party also made gains
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing centre-right grouping lost ground but finished ahead of its rivals. The Social Democrats, Ms Merkel’s partners in the grand coalition, saw their worst election showing since World War II with just 20.8%
• In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition is ahead of the socialist opposition, with between 39% and 43% of the vote, exit polls suggested. The Italian group may be the largest within the EPP
• In the UK, the governing Labour Party is expecting a serious defeat, slipping to third place
• Spain’s governing Socialists were slightly behind the opposition Popular Party, according to partial results
• Poland’s governing centre-right Civic Platform has gained ground at the expense of the Eurosceptic Law and Justice Party
• Early results show Portugal’s ruling Socialists dropped a massive 18 percentage points, losing out mainly to Greens and far-left parties

In the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown’s left-wing Labour Party lost badly:

Labour is facing an historic defeat in European elections which have seen the BNP gain its first seat in Brussels.

Labour may dip below 20% of the popular vote in what deputy leader Harriet Harman called a “very dismal” night.

The party lost 12% of its vote in Wales, where they were beaten by the Tories for the first time since 1918.

The BNP win in Yorkshire and Humberside was branded a “sad day” by the Tories and Labour but the party said it was a blow against EU “dictatorship”.

With results starting to flow in, Labour looks on course to finish behind the UK Independence Party, which is currently on 17%, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is facing calls from leading figures within his own party to stand down.

Labour has been beaten into fifth place behind the Greens in two English regions – the South-East and South-West.

The Conservatives on course to repeat their victory of 2004 with 27% of the vote, but without significantly increasing their share of the vote.

The Lib Dems are neck-and-neck with Labour on 16%.

And there are also local level elections in the UK, where the Conservatives gained over 10% from their already impressive showing in 2004.

In the English local elections held on Thursday the Conservatives got a projected 38% of the vote, the Lib Dems 28% and Labour 23%.

In the 2004 European elections the Conservatives won 26.7% of votes, Labour 22.6%, UKIP 16.1%, the Lib Dems 14.9%, the Greens 6.3% and the BNP 4.9%.

The BBC also has a country-by-country breakdown here in text, and an animated version showing seat counts by country.

I blogged before about the good news from the Lebanon and India election results as well.

UPDATE: Western Experience links to a more recent overview from the Wall Street Journal.