Walker's World: Europe's dying Left (not able to benefit from present Economic Crises)- by Martin Walker
France's giant BNP Paribas bank, which took more than $5 billion in state funds to help it through the financial crisis, provoked a political storm when it revealed last week that it was handing out more than $1 billion in bonuses to its staff. But the attacks came from the center-right government that backs conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, more loudly and more effectively than from the divided and squabbling opposition Socialist party. It is a strange irony that Europe's traditionally powerful left-wing and social democratic parties seem unable to benefit from the most severe crisis of capitalism since the 1930s.
The beneficiaries of this process -- Europe's conservatives -- are far from complacent. They know they are also vulnerable to populist appeals on unemployment, globalization and swollen bonuses for "fat cat" bankers. They also fear the emergence of new coalitions against them, the kind of "progressive alliance" of the Left and Greens that formed the German government from 1997 to 2005.
No comments:
Post a Comment