World
Updated : May 26, 2014, 05:11 PM IST
Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she was surprised and dismayed by the strength of some far-right and populist parties in the European Parliament elections.
"It's remarkable and regrettable," Merkel said at a news conference in Berlin.
Eurosceptic nationalists scored stunning victories in France and Britain on Sunday as critics of the European Union more than doubled their seats in a continent-wide protest vote against austerity and unemployment.
Anti-establishment parties of the far right and hard left made gains in many countries.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Stephen Brown and Noah Barkin; writing by Erik Kirschbaum)