Liberalism in decline in Europe
Added to its failures in Europe, you can see the same failures in the US where liberalism has failed in states like New York, California, and Oregon to name just a few. Meanwhile states like Texas with a conservative government have done much better with low taxes and high job creation.America's self-declared progressives see the U.S. future in Europe's welfare model. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, voters en masse are dumping the political movement that gave them the nanny state. Hmmm.
Of late, the winning political formula in Europe is simple: Promise to ease heavy tax and regulatory burdens and shake up stagnant economies. The welfare system is seen as broken. France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi took this path to power. In the largest economy, Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel looks poised to defeat a divided left in September's elections.
Across the Continent, the left is in disarray. France's Socialist Party, which last won a Presidential election in the 1980s, refuses to move to the center -- and further sinks in the polls. Italy's leftist parties compromised themselves in a brief two-year stint in office, before Mr. Berlusconi swept them out in April of last year. The center-left ruling parties in Britain and Spain, which inherited economies revitalized by courageous politicians who implemented free-market ideas, are also in trouble.
Even in a recession so widely attributed to unfettered capitalism, socialists are unable to take advantage. Consider the results last week of elections for the European Parliament. Center-right parties gained in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and across most of eastern Europe. Sweden, Denmark and Greece were exceptions.
It's dangerous to generalize about 27 very different countries. Gordon Brown's Labour Party, in power since 1997, built on Thatcherism and now finds itself blamed for Britain's economic troubles. The new "kinder and gentler" Tories, who have sidelined Lady Thatcher, hold a comfortable lead with elections due within 12 months. Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Merkel, though incumbents, could blame "Anglo-American capitalism" to make gains in the Parliament elections. The far right, with its bogeymen of globalization and immigration, attracts protest voters who once favored the nostrums of the left.
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Having lived in many countries over the years, due to work obligations(Canada, Holland, the U.S.A, Mexico, Ireland.) I would have to put this article in to context, the rejection of the left in Europe is down mostly to its support for mass immigration, mainly Islamic, which is changing Europe on many levels and general PC policies of the left. The welfare state is still very popular, indeed countries like Finland, Sweden and Norway who would have very comprehensive welfare states are also amongst the richest and most competitive states in the world. From the countries that I have lived in I would have to say that Holland, would have the highest standard and quality of living of any country that I have been in.
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