Excerpt:
Socialists and other left-wing political parties in Europe suffered humiliating defeats in continent-wide voting for the European Union's parliament. After four days of polling that ended on June 7, voters in almost all of the EU's 27 member states supported conservative parties, a clear sign that center-left parties have been unable to offer politically plausible solutions to Europe's worst economic crisis since World War II. Indeed, conservative parties across Europe said the results vindicated their unwillingness to spend more money on company bailouts and fiscal incentives to stimulate faltering economies.