Europe, Failure and Hope

The French and Greek elections brought a powerful lesson to the European Conservatives. They must to think about the results of their plan of dismantling the Welfare State and seeking economic recovery through austerity measures. These measures are making the global financial crisis each day more European.

The only clear message yesterday was that citizenship does not support the austerity policy. A policy already disaccredited economically by analyst like Krugman that has prevented about the situation that Greek goes through today.  A forecast that neoliberal economist have been gradually recognizing.  The so-called ‘austerity trap’ means that more cuts in public expenditure slash internal demand and generate more debts in the long-run.

This economic policy has led to a Social Crisis with an unprecedented growth of inequalities. The poverty is exploding in Germany that has not suffered much from the crisis. Of course that is nothing comparable to the general impoverishment of the Greek society.

The Greek and French elections have also showed that Conservatives are each day less relevant face to an increasingly powerful far-right. This far-right had taken all the glory from the neoliberal policies that dismantled the Welfare State.  The unprotected working class votes massively for them fearing the immigrants. The Greek elections particularly emphasized that there is something even worse than the far-right that in Greece was already in the parliament LAOS. This bigger threat is the Greek Nazis of the Golden Dawn whose militants fight immigrant in the streets or expel the journalist that don’t stand up for receiving their leader. Do you imagine a Nazi MEP in Brussels?

Another consequence of this political crisis is the discredit of the Social Democracy that was forced to follow the austerity policies for the sake of the European project. These policies were imposed, with or without troika, by the neoliberals that reign in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin. It is quite true that the Greek case of Social democrat defeat is quite exceptional but there are similar trends in other European countries. The far-left movements are growing everywhere in Europe, in Holland with elections in September, the once Maoist party is ahead of the Labor Party on the polls.  While the Spanish socialists are losing popularity even if the right-wing government is losing it as well. Same thing for Melenchon and the French election.

Merkel and the Conservatives leaders should listen carefully to Hollande proposals if they don’t want to endanger the European project.  Eurobonds, fiscal harmonization, financial transaction tax, the European minimum wage or even a European Marshall plan proposed by the German social democrats should be passed in order to avoid the collapse of the Euro and the European Union.  The neoliberal Barroso Commission has already realized that and tabled some of above-mentioned measures.