Guardian: Across Europe, the left's fightback has begun

[pampango]

Far from being in retreat, the political pendulum is swinging back to the left – with a more integrated EU at the heart of its agenda


Helle Thorning-Schmidt, leader of the Danish Social Democrats,
who ousted the country's rightwing government from power.

Last week we had the success of the coalition of Social Democrats, the Socialist People's party and the Red-Green Alliance in the Danish general election. This week we have learned about the unexpected victory of the alliance of French Socialists and Greens in taking control of the French Senate – following a series of dramatic election victories for the left in the French regions earlier this year.

(I)f, as now seems likely, President Nicolas Sarkozy and the French right lose the French presidential election next spring, and this is then followed by a Social Democrat/Green victory in the German general election in early 2013, the centre of power at the heart of the European Union will have moved as well. What is not widely understood in Britain is that the French and German socialists and their green allies now share very similar ideas about the future governance of the eurozone and the wider European Union.

The German conservative parties have resisted every proposal to move to a full scale economic union where the collective credit of the eurozone could be deployed to support countries under the financial cosh. But the German social democrat/Green opposition backs the ideas of euro bonds and urges a different economic strategy, which would prioritise sustainable growth at EU level.

The French and German opposition parties insist that they want to see both an economically and politically more integrated EU and a deliberate distancing from the neoliberalism ideology that has dominated European politics for the past decade. Indeed their conviction that closer European integration is essential is being reinforced by the current confusion and division among centre right EU governments over how to handle the financial crisis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/27/europe-left-fightback

It's nice to see the right wing in Europe being put in its place. Hope this continues in France next year and Germany in 2013. Maybe then the left can revitalize the EU by bringing it closer together.

[lunatica]

1. A movement soon to visit our shores

[auntpurl]

2. We'll see if the EU still exists, after Greece sh!ts the bed

Troublesome.

[pampango]

3. Tough times indeed, but the Eurosceptics are on the right so we know who will be happy

if the EU falls apart.