Right-wing eurosceptic parties stormed to victory in European Parliament elections in the UK and France. UKIP leader Nigel Farage claimed victory, as early results showed his party beating both the Conservatives and Labour.
He says his party is causing an 'earthquake' in British politics.
This is the first time in the UK, since 1906, that a party other than the big two - Conservative and Labour - has topped the poll in a nationwide vote.
The biggest losers there were the Liberal Democrats who endured an appalling time, following so closely upon extremely disappointing local election results.
The pro-European party lost all but one of its MEPs from the first nine of Great Britain's 11 regional constituencies to declare and were relegated to fifth place behind the Greens.
It comes as counting continues to fill Irish MEP seats.
In France the far-right National Front are the vote leaders after Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration, anti-EU party secured more than a quarter of ballots cast.
Without waiting for the final result, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls went on television to call the result "an earthquake" for France and Europe.
The National Front (FN) won around 25% of the vote in France, according to exit polls, easily beating the centre-right UMP on 20%.
Exit polls say far-right and hard-left parties have gained ground in many countries, including in Greece where the extreme right Golden Dawn are thought to have won nearly 10% of the vote.
By the half way stage, the centre-right parties were expected to be the biggest group, with 212 out of 751 seats. The Socialists were expected to gain 185 seats, the Liberals third with 71, the Greens fourth with 55 and the far-left next with 45.
Eurosceptic parties were expected to win about 143 seats.
The winners in Greece, the anti-austerity movement Syriza, are thought to have topped the polls with more than 27% of the vote.
In Germany, the biggest EU member state with the largest number of seats, the pro-European centre ground held firm, according to the polls.
Ms. Le Pen, whose party beat President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialists into third place, told supporters "The people have spoken loud and clear...they no longer want to be led by those outside our borders, by EU commissioners and technocrats who are unelected".
"They want to be protected from globalisation and take back the reins of their destiny" she added.
In Denmark the right wing Danish People's Party topped the polls, although its leaders have ruled out an alliance with the National Front.
Spain's two main political parties, the ruling conservative Popular Party in power since 2011 and the Socialist Party, lost major ground to smaller parties, mainly on the left. The Catalan independence party also performed well.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) came in ahead of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) in his country's exit polls.
In Belgium, the controversial Flemish separatists secured four of 21 EU parliamentary seats available in the country, more than any other party.
Turnout in Eastern Europe was predicted to be low, with estimates of around 20% expected.
