All across Europe - the Left is getting its ass kicked
or… as AP puts it so softly:
Across Europe, the embattled left loses its clout
VIENNA – Pity Europe’s Socialists. It’s getting lonely on the left.
Just when you might think capitalism’s global crisis would breathe new life into the left, it’s looking increasingly divided and tired. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s re-election a week ago is highlighting a conservative surge in her country and Europe’s other powerhouse economies — Britain, France and Italy — where the center-right is either firmly in power or about to get there.
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The left’s slide began well before the global recession discredited the right’s faith in free markets and light regulation. The surprise, to some, is that Europeans seem to have more faith in conservatives to solve the crisis.
“In times of insecurity, the right has credibility,” said Enrico de Bernart, a 43-year-old man window-shopping near the Pantheon in Rome. “People trust the right or center-right even if you don’t like their objectives.”
The Financial Times of London had another explanation: The left was in power for a decade in Britain and Germany, and it was then, voters believe, that the seeds of the financial meltdown were planted.
“Instead of being trusted to provide answers to the recession, they are seen as part of the problem,” it said.
The right has also profited by pounding hard on immigration and crime — popular in times of economic uncertainty — while sending out reassuring messages about preserving Europe’s generous welfare systems.
The AP, being a creature of the Left, within the same article, struggles mightily to put a positive spin on this, from the Leftard standpoint, but bits and pieces of the truth manage to wriggle through.
... (C)onservatives have deposed the left in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. And in smaller countries where the center-left clings to power — Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands and Norway — its hold seems shaky at best.
Its most dramatic humiliation was its trouncing in Germany.
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Critics question the left’s ability to deal with the problems posed by modern society, such as rising immigration, urban insecurity and a changing labor market…
The center-left can’t seem to catch a break in Britain, either.
The ruling Labour Party — foundering under unpopular Prime Minister Gordon Brown, suffered another indignity last week when Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid, The Sun, announced it was switching support to the opposition Conservatives after backing Labour for more than a decade.
“This government has lost its way,” the newspaper declared.
Most predict Labour will be voted out next year. David Cameron, the Conservative leader campaigning to become Britain’s next prime minister, said voters “see a regenerated, refreshed Conservative Party ready to serve.”
On a side note, you would think that it would be simple enough to find photos of Lenin’s statue being torn down, as many were after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Impossible to find.
On the internet?
Those images have been shoved down the Memory Hole, or, conduct your own search and post your results below. Then tell me where you found it.
