European parliamentary elections have drawn to a close bringing major gains for both Euroskeptic and far-right movements

While most of the news from Europe was dominated by the rise of right wing parties in the Euro Elections Greece bucked the rightist trend with an historic day for the left, the anti-austerity Syriza won the ballot by a margin of nearly four points over the conservative New Democracy party led by prime minister Antonis Samaras.

Addressing supporters as the results rolled in, Alexis Tsipras,