Serbia faced becoming a pariah state again tonight after an extreme nationalist party made massive gains in a general election.

A strong election success by right-wing nationalists allied to former president Slobodan Milosevic is leaving fractured pro-democracy groups with little choice but to unite or see Serbia slide into renewed authoritarianism.

Italy’s former European Commissioner Emma Bonino is on hunger strike in protest at what she says is unfair media coverage of the countgry’s impending general election.