Anti-immigrant Danish party wins EU vote

(COPENHAGEN) - The anti-immigrant Danish People's Party won the election in Denmark for the European Parliament with 23 percent of the votes, according to an exit poll Sunday.

The poll, which was carried out by the firm Epinion on behalf of national broadcaster DR, put the party ahead of the Social Democrats who scored 20.2 percent.

"My mother's heart swells, because I'm simply so proud if that's the result," the party's charismatic cofounder and former leader Pia Kjaersgaard told DR in reaction to the poll.

If proved correct, this result would give the party three of Denmark's 13 seats in the European Parliament.

The result was announced after early indications that France's far-right National Front took about 25 percent of the popular vote.

The Danish People's Party has repeatedly distanced itself from the National Front, and did so again on Sunday.

"It's deplorable that parties like Le Pen's National Front and Golden Dawn (of Greece) gain ground, but they do because the established parties let the Europeans down," Morten Messerschmidt, a member of the European Parliament for the Danish People's Party, told DR.

The Danish exit poll had a margin of error of 1.8 percentage point, according to DR's website.