Center Right Victory in Spain Continues Europe's Lurch to the Right

[JCMach1]

Cameron
Merkel
Sarkozy

et al. The right of center now controls the continent...

Spain's center-right opposition stormed to a crushing election victory on Sunday as voters punished the outgoing Socialist government for the worst economic crisis in generations. The People's Party, led by former Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy, won an absolute majority in Parliament and is expected to push through drastic measures to try to prevent Spain being sucked deeper into a debt storm threatening the whole euro zone.
Voters vented their rage on the Socialists, who led the country from boom to bust in seven years in charge. With 5 million people out of work, the European Union's highest jobless rate, Spain is heading into its second recession in four years.
Spaniards, who voted in pouring rain on Sunday, were the fifth European nation to throw out their leaders because of the spreading euro zone crisis, following Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy... http://ibnlive.in.com/news/centreright-roars-to-victory-in-spain-election/204175-2.html

[abelenkpe]

1. Hope that doesn't happen here :( nt

[JCMach1]

2. Mitt would be a disaster...that goes without saying

[TheWraith]

3. There's a simple way to prevent it. Elect Democrats.

Minimum of 218 Democrats in the House and reelecting President Obama.

[Amonester]

5. So, once done, the minimum (or more) 218 Dems will vote to....

get Wall Street & K Street bribes out of politics?

Ah... Yes... Probably no. The Senate will probably not vote Yay.

See? It's rigged. As in, it never passes. Never.

[abelenkpe]

8. Didn't FDR and Johnson both have big majorities

And make some big changes.

[TheWraith]

9. Huge, 3/1 type majorities, yes.

And the massive, mind-blowing wrongness of the "they're all the same" meme can be simply summarized thusly: Bush vs. Gore.

[Amonester]

16. Out of curiosity, how many seats in the Senate will the Dems...

(I mean, real Dems and not DINOs) have a good chance to get in Nov. 2012?

Thanks.

[TheWraith]

38. Unfortunately, senate elections next year are stacked against us.

At most, the Dems can probably pick up four seats: Massachusetts, Nevada, Maine, Arizona. Most of the other elections are either in deep red states or are Democratic incumbents. On top of that we've got to defend Democratic seats in North Dakota, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia, and Montana, some of which are going to be open seats. Democratic seats up, including retirees, number 23, while just 10 Republicans are up. Six Dems are retiring versus just 2 Republicans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2012

We're not going to get anything close to a supermajority, but I think that 55 seats is reasonable if things go well.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[abelenkpe]

36. No he did not

And no matter how many times people attempt to say that I do actually remember the past few years. He did not have a big majority. He barely had one in the senate and had to contend with stupid traitorous conservadems. Those are the people we should be working overtime to replace. Look I'm hugely disappointed with Obama but I do know he did not have the support he needed in congress to make any meaningful changes.

[TheWraith]

37. Ah, "Obummer," one of the right-wing's favorite smear nicknames.

Am I surprised? Not at all.

[dameocrat67]

13. The simple way to prevent this is for the democrats to reject austerity

The socialist went along with bankers and got their just deserts.

[truedelphi]

39. Too bad the Democrats with the power didn't bother to clean up the voting

Machinery, and election processes, and enact stiff penalties for anyone tampering with the democratic processes, etc.

Just sayin'. (They are talking about such stuff NOW, but that means any real changes would be years off. They needed to be on this January 21st 2009, and they weren't.)

[WildNovember]

4. Isn't that the idea? The liberals "fail," ushering in the right? It's what happened in

pre-war Germany, too. Highly suspect IMO.

[Amonester]

6. Not good: frigging austerity, cuts, cuts, cuts...

Millions will not survive these stupid policies.

The banksters will get their way if the movement fails.

Not.Good.At.All. :banghead:

[Faithful One]

7. The Socialists ended up destroying Spain's economy.

It's only natural that people turn to the right.

[Amonester]

10. Mark my words: they will hate what the center-right will force them...

to go through in less than 6 months from now.

Good luck to them. They will need some.

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. By implementing the reforms and cuts the right was calling for

which is a nice bit of irony. Spanish voters have in essence cast a vote for more of the same in economic policy; austerity, cuts, sacrificing themselves on the altar of the Euro along with Greece and Italy.

[dameocrat67]

15. and the socialist proved that it made no difference by implementing

austerity themselves.

[Mojeoux]

23. No....they didn't and no............

it's not natural to turn right at all.

[reggie the dog]

27. the "socialists" in spain did cuts cuts cuts

that is why they are out, if you are gonna have to live with right wing policies may as well vote right wing, the "socialists" in spain put austerity on the backs of the poor and middle class and tanked the economy doing so

[dameocrat67]

12. This is the future of all center left parties that betray their voters and

impose austerity, and yes that includes the dems. The fact is the right already controlled Spain in all but name.

[JCMach1]

21. +1000

[saras]

17. DID the Socialists destroy the economy? or merely have power while the economy was destroyed?

[xchrom]

18. +1

[Faithful One]

19. Sounds like they caused it:

"Voters vented their rage on the Socialists, who led the country from boom to bust in seven years in charge. With 5 million people out of work, the European Union's highest jobless rate, Spain is heading into its second recession in four years."

[stillwaiting]

20. That is a nice and convenient narrative there with absolutely nothing to back up the claim.

HOW did the socialists lead the country to bust? It's the only question that bears any significance.

Specifically, what policies did the "socialists" pass? Were they policies that the right wing, corporate interests, and the elite would approve of? This includes the neo-liberalism that is wreaking havoc on pretty much the entire globe. Massive austerity cuts, reforms (to include privatization and deregulation), etc. seem to be happening all over the globe. These are certainly not SOCIALIST policies, but they are "socialist" policies that the elite will use to convince as many ignorant individuals as possible that socialism doesn't work.

Socialism DOESN'T work when it's neo-liberalism being masqueraded as socialism.

[reggie the dog]

29. they did austerity on the backs of the poor and working people

just as the right wing wanted them to do, the "left" in spain is like new labor or 3rd way dems, the right wing has infiltrated their party.

[stillwaiting]

35. Yes, I know Reggie. Thanks for the response. My questions were rhetorical and aimed

at the poster who seems to want very much to blame socialism for what's happening in Spain.

Unfortunately, around the globe, the elites have infiltrated supposedly left wing parties and upon election are able to ram through right wing economic policies that actual right wing parties could never have implemented. This, of course, was brilliantly illustrated in Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine and further illustrated around the world (including the U.S.) since the publication of her very important work.

I get really ticked when I see people here (especially here) attempting to blame socialism for the woes being brought to so many people around the globe when the "leftists/socialists" advocated and implemented right wing economic policy with the resulting extremely predictable and dire results.

I know you know the score!

:)

[JCMach1]

22. Cheap loans, cheap money, and the crash of 2008 doomed

the Spanish economy largely due to the size of the travel sector.

i.e. British and other Europeans could no longer afford to retire, and vacation there.

I can remember so many British shows about escaping to Spain. Would be an interesting documentary to see what happened to all of those poor souls.

[dipsydoodle]

24. The drift from the "travel sector" had already occured prior to 2008

with many of those workers transferring to the building industry. The financial collapse 2008 folded the building industry. In the meanwhile , yes , their travel industry had reduced in activity so there were no jobs to return to there. Some reduction in their level of tourism had already occurred well prior to 2008 - Spain ceased to be a cheap place to go on holiday after they joined the Euro.

It was the collapse in the building industry which probably made the greatest contribution to their unemployed level reaching 20%.

It worth reading through this thoroughly for some history.

What's the matter with Spain? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15734280 Pick and chose what you want from that.

On the subject of "Right" see this post : http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=5065585&mesg_id=5065848 reply #8.

[JCMach1]

31. Construction, development, real estate, travel--- BUST

all part and parcel the same game... Same things happened here in the UAE and back in Florida, my home in the States.

[Enthusiast]

30. Bull. Shit.

[reggie the dog]

28. they renounced keynes and made the poor and working

take austerity in social programs, which meant they had less money to spend, which further tanked the economy

the socialists in spain were to the right of our right wing party here in france, they were not socialists, they were right wing.

[reggie the dog]

25. denmark recently voted left

and france has voted left in all 5 elections since our last presidential election

remember greece voted left and the banks replaced him

[pampango]

26. Spain turns to the right – but are the voters rejecting ‘the left’ or incumbents?

So yet another right-wing government takes power in a European nation. On the face of it, it seems almost perverse that at a time when confidence in the deregulated capitalist system associated with the right is at its lowest ebb that those parties which champion it are winning elections. As I noted here on LibDemVoice back in August:

That societies tend to move to the right at times of economic and social uncertainty is not new. But the retreat of the left across Europe is significant, as the Guardian noted a couple of weeks ago, and as their maps show. With Portugal having elected a right-wing Social Democrat government in June, and Spain likely to elect the right-wing Partido Popular in November, only four out of Europe’s 27 nations will have left-of-centre governments.

In Denmark, in September’s election, the left’s coalition of Social Democrats, the Socialist People’s party and the Red-Green Alliance did well enough to form a new government (though we should note the liberal Venstre party gained a seat and remained the single largest party). In France, also in September, an alliance of French Socialists and Greens took control of the French Senate, and, for the moment at least, François Hollande is well-placed in the polls to defeat President Sarkozy. And in Germany, too, though elections are still almost two years away, Angela Merkel’s coalition of the centre-right CDU/CSU and the liberal FPD is polling well behind a likely alliance of Sigmar Gabriel’s left-of-centre SPD, the Greens and the hard-left Die Linke.

It is, therefore, simplistic to point to Spain as another nail in the coffin of the European left. It is at least as likely to be a reaction by the voters against incumbency. Now is not a time when being popular and being in government are an easy combination. Governments of left and right across Europe are having to implement austerity measures, whether voluntarily or because they’re compelled to by their own indebtedness; the severity varies, but it is an inevitable consequence of sluggish growth in the west.

http://www.libdemvoice.org/spain-turns-to-the-right-but-are-the-voters-rejecting-the-left-or-incumbents-25946.html

Switzerland's right wing is in retreat. For two decades the anti-immigration and anti-EU SVP dominated politics. But the elections suggest the Swiss are turning away from its populist policies.

The trend in Swiss politics in the last two decades can be summarised as the unstoppable rise of the populist rightwing SVP, the Schweizerische Volkspartei or Swiss People's party. Now, however, the party's programme – consisting of ironclad rejection of the EU, a bitter fight against immigration of all kinds and the demand for uncompromising tax cuts – has lost its popularity. Voters are deserting the SVP for the first time in 20 years.

The weakening of the SVP is liable to influence Switzerland's European policy above all. The party is totally against making any concessions to the EU on competing on tax and financial policy. It made canceling the bilateral treaty on the free movement of people between Switzerland and the EU one of the keystones of its campaign. While these demands were never realistic, they put a great deal of pressure on the Swiss government and have paralysed Swiss policy on Europe completely in recent years. This pressure is now off.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/24/switzerland-right-wing-anti-immigration-svp?newsfeed=true

[JCMach1]

32. doesn't matter, it puts the right in-charge...

[pampango]

33. In Spain but not in Denmark or Switzerland. Polls show rw losses in France (2012) and Germany (2013)

current trends continue.

[JCMach1]

41. Of course until then, the RW continues the Shock Doctrine

and puts in-place mechanisms that will cause ANY other government to have to do the same.

[Dawson Leery]

42. As of now, the French right will face a crushing rout.

[blindpig]

34. It is more rejection of the ruling 'socialist' parties....

These so-called socialists are completely accommodationist collaberators with capital, selling their people down the river, very much like the Democratic Party here. That is what is being rejected. Of course the conservatives will continue those policies in spades, look for the communists and their allies to gain much strength in the next round, as they have in Greece.

[MisterP]

40. heh, it lurched to the right by 1996, now the differences are between jam and marmalade

WHAT, DO YOU WANT THE JAM TO WIN????!!!

[Better Believe It]

43. That's what happens when the "socialists" & liberals attack working class rights & living standards.

.... and there is not a powerful and radical left alternative with mass support in the elections.

But this is a good start in Spain: "In a sign of frustration with the two big parties, the United Left coalition of lefts and greens won 1.67 million votes, increasing their seats in the lower house from two to 11."

So who will lead the drive for austerity in the United States?

Will it be the Democrats, Republicans or a bi-partisan majority ready to make the "tough decisions" to cut "entitlements"?

It will be a partisan operation to lower our living standards and eat away our democratic and Constitutional rights.

It's been that all along.