Europe's Anti-Austerity Calls Mount as Election Campaigns Climax

A recession in Spain and forecasts of rising unemployment in the 17-nation euro area are amplifying criticism of the German-led austerity agenda in election campaigns this week in France and Greece.

With Spain's largest unions leading marches involving thousands of protesters in 55 cities yesterday, 

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government battled to prevent Spain from becoming the next country to seek a bailout. In France, the final round of presidential elections on May 6, Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande pushed back against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's focus on deficit reduction.

"Watching Spain now is exactly like watching Ireland around October 2010 before Ireland was forced into its bailout," Megan Greene, a senior economist at Roubini Global Economics LLC, told Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart" on April 27. "The government can't win no matter what it does."

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