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https://theconversation.com/australian-labor-isnt-alone-parties-of-the-left-are-making-a-comeback-185484>
"One aspect of May’s federal election has been strangely overlooked: Labor’s
win follows a pattern among the main centre-left parties in Europe and
comparable countries. Traditional social democratic and labour-based parties
are resurgent, and now hold office (on their own or in coalition) across all of
Scandinavia and in Germany, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand.
Where the past decade has been dominated by talk of a crisis of the left, the
debate is increasingly shifting to the crisis of the right.
The picture isn’t uniform, of course. Some countries have experienced the de
facto demise of their main centre-left party. We might call this the
“PASOKification” syndrome, after the sharp loss of support for Greece’s PASOK
party, but it extends to other parts of Europe.
The Netherlands’ once-dominant Labour Party was placed sixth in last year’s
election, with just 5.7% of the vote. France’s main party of the left, the
Socialist Party, was reduced to just 6.4% in the first round of the 2017
presidential elections and just 1.7% this year.
British Labour, meanwhile, lost the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections.
Despite the toxicity that surrounds the Conservative government, Labour leader
Keir Starmer remains unpopular and unlikely to win the next election.
In Belgium and Italy, the left’s situation is less bleak, though its main
parties are far from hegemonic. In the highly fragmented Belgian system, the
Flemish and Walloon socialist parties are part of the seven-party (yes, seven!)
“Vivaldi coalition”. Italy’s Democratic Party is part of the current Draghi-led
national unity government, and in more recent times has held the prime
ministership.
Outside Europe, the new “pink tide” in South America has seen, for example,
35-year-old Gabriel Boric win Chile’s presidential election."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
