A thorough drubbing of European leaders was the order of the day in elections across the continent, as voters spooked by the economic collapse registered their dissatisfaction in European Parliament and local polls that saw a sharp swing to the right.

In the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown's Labour Party was emblematic of the whiplash -- pre-election polls projected it could finish third, and early results confirmed that grim diagnosis. In one early-reporting district, conservatives outpolled Labour three to one. The anti-immigration...