Europe’s far-right parties have rejoiced at the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, hailing it as a victory for their own anti-immigration and anti-EU stances and vowing to push for similar referendums in countries such as France, the Netherlands and Denmark.



France’s Front National (FN) hailed Brexit as a clear boost for Marine Le Pen’s presidential bid next spring, as well as a move that gave momentum to the party’s anti-Europe and anti-immigration line.

“Victory for Freedom! As I have been asking for years, we must now have the same referendum in France and EU countries,” Le Pen wrote on Twitter.

Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) La liberté des peuples finit toujours par gagner ! Bravo le Royaume-Uni. A nous maintenant ! #Brexit #Frexit

A jubilant Le Pen delivered a Brexit victory speech from her party’s headquarters outside Paris, styling the UK referendum result as just the start of an unstoppable new wave of support for parties and movements like the Front National. “The UK has begun a movement that can’t be stopped,” she said.

Le Pen swiftly changed her social media handles to the Union flag and stated her “warmest and friendliest” congratulations to “very brave” Boris Johnson and the leave campaign. Specially printed Front National Brexit posters showed hands breaking free from chains, with the caption “Now it’s France’s turn”.

Marion Le Pen (@Marion_M_Le_Pen) VICTORY ! #EUref #Brexit

Le Pen, who has been calling for a French EU referendum for three years and is expected to comfortably reach the final round of the presidential election in April, had seized on the UK’s EU referendum to bolster her critical stance on the bloc and on Brexit as a new opportunity for the far right to win over new French voters.

She has said that if if she wins the French presidency, she will within six months hold an in-out referendum on the country’s membership of the union and campaign for a French exit, or “Frexit”. “Europe will be at the heart of the next [French] presidential election” Le Pen said.

Brexit, she said, was also about a wider resurgence of what she called “patriotic” movements across Europe. On Friday many of those movements – rightwing, far-right, and Eurosceptic parties – appeared similarly emboldened and energised by the Brexit vote.

In the Netherlands, the far right and anti-immigration leader Geert Wilders called for a referendum on Dutch membership of the EU. “I think it’s historic,” he told Dutch radio. “I think it could also have huge consequences for the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Now it’s our turn. I think the Dutch people must now be given the chance to have their say in a referendum.”





Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) Congratulations Britain!



Congratulations @Nigel_Farage pic.twitter.com/VH7c8cStW0

In Germany, Beatrix von Storch, an MEP for the rightwing populist party Alternative für Deutschland, welcomed the result.

“The 23 June is a historic day. It is Great Britain’s independence day. The people were asked – and they decided. The European Union as a political union has failed,” said Storch, who was recently expelled from the Tories’ party group in the European parliament after suggesting German police might be within their rights to shoot refugees trying to cross the border.

The far right Sweden Democrats, meanwhile, who hold the balance of power in Stockholm, tweeted: “Congratulations to Britain’s people on choosing independence! Now we are waiting for a #swexit!”

Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) Ambiance franco-britannique pour célébrer la liberté des nations ! pic.twitter.com/A0rVVhno78

The powerful far-right Danish People’s party congratulated the British people on their “bold” choice, which, it said, was a “stinging slap to the whole system”.

The DPP’s spokesperson Kenneth Kristensen Berth told Danish media: “These European bureaucrats have been unusually adept at avoiding any possible confrontation with the massive popular opposition to the project. The [British] signal cannot be overheard.”

The DPP has said it wants a Danish referendum on less binding conditions of EU membership. But Denmark’s centre-right prime minister, who relies on the support of the DPP to prop up his minority administration, said there would be no such plebiscite.

In Athens, Golden Dawn, Europe’s most violent rightwing party, rejoiced at the referendum result. Predicting it would further empower “nationalist forces” across Europe, the neo-fascist group welcomed what it described as “the brave decision of the British people” and said it hoped a similar referendum could take place in Greece.

“Golden Dawn welcomes the victory of the nationalist and patriotic forces in Great Britain against the European Union, which has been transformed into the doleful instrument of loan sharks,” said the party’s leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos.

Debt-stricken Greece, the eurozone’s weakest link and until now most volatile member state, has been bailed out three times since 2010. “I hope that sometime a referendum can be held in Greece, which has been brought to its knees economically and enslaved, assigning its national sovereignty to the Europe of usurers,” the leader, an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler, added.

Amid signs of growing anti-European sentiment in the country, there are fears that Golden Dawn, currently Athens’ third biggest political force, will be bolstered on the back of anger over a new round of gruelling tax increases, wage and pension cuts expected to kick in this year.

In other parts of Europe the reaction even among Eurosceptics was more measured. Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which won a remarkable 25% of the vote in the 2013 national election and this month gained new momentum when its candidates were elected mayors of Rome and Turin, reacted to the Brexit vote with a lengthy critique of Brussels.

Movimento 5 Stelle (@Mov5Stelle) La UE o cambia o muore https://t.co/Iobh04LDLy pic.twitter.com/sJVMOt14AK

The EU should change or else it would die, said the movement, which has been demanding a referendum on the single currency for years.

“The Leave of the United Kingdom sets forth the failure of political communities facing austerity, and the egotism of the member states, incapable of being a community … We want a Europe which is a ‘community’ and not a union of banks and lobbies,” said the party, writing on the blog of founder Beppe Grillo.

Additional reporting by Philip Oltermann in Berlin, Gordon Darroch in the Hague, David Crouch in Gothenburg, Helena Smith in Athens and Rosie Scammell in Rome