'Not much left for Europe's left'

[leftstreet]

By Paul Taylor

PARIS | Mon Oct 14, 2013 2:33am EDT

(Reuters) - What is left for Europe's mainstream center-left?

Socialist and social democratic parties that shaped the protective European social model and ruled much of the continent a decade ago have been among the chief political casualties of the financial and economic crisis since 2008.

More than just a cyclical trough, this may be a longer-term decline because the left has lost its political narrative.

Many young and blue-collar voters, angry over mass unemployment and spending cuts, have deserted to protest parties of the anti-capitalist hard left or the Eurosceptical, anti-immigrant far right, as the political landscape fragments, polling evidence shows.

...

"Social democracy nowadays basically amounts to the defense of the status quo and preventing the worst," says Olaf Cramme, director of Policy Network, a think-tank for progressive center-left politics.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/us-europe-left-analysis-idUSBRE99D02V20131014

Worth a read

[Demo_Chris]

1. Well worth a read. nt