Spain rejects socialism

Spain rejects socialism – only three per cent of EU citizens now have Left-wing governments

Daniel Hannan
Telegraph.co.uk
November 21st, 2011

Congratulations to Mariano Rajoy, whose Partido Popular has won a thumping victory in Spain: nearly eleven million votes to the Socialists' seven million, 186 seats to their 110. It's not often that you get the same headline in ABC and El País , but a result on such a scale allowed no room for interpretation: the two old rivals agreed that Spain had entrusted her future wholly to the conservatives.

The achievement is all the more remarkable because, while the Socialist Party (PSOE) picks up votes from Left-of-Centre voters across Spain, Right-of-Centre voters in Catalonia and the Basque Country tend to support local autonomist parties. This means that, in order to win an overall majority, the PP traditionally has to outpoll PSOE by a large margin in the rest of the country. It did so on this occasion. Four of Spain's 50 provinces are in Catalonia, and three in the Basque lands. Of the remaining 43, the PP won 42 (plus Álava in the Basque Country for good measure). In Castilian-speaking Spain, only the citadels of orange-scented Seville poke out above the blue tide.

Thank Heaven the result was decisive. In Greece and in Italy, elected premiers have been toppled in favour of Brussels placemen, and a hung parliament might have opened the door to an eventual Euro-putsch in Spain. Both sides in Spanish politics have, in the past, been equivocal about the verdict of the ballot box. Everyone knows that Spanish conservatives refused to accept the Left's narrow victory in 1936. What is often forgotten is that republicans were every bit as reluctant to accept the Right's victory two years earlier. A long history of uprisings and pronuncamientos meant that democracy was widely seen as a means to an end rather than as a desirable system in its own right.

Happily, no one can now question the PP's mandate. Throughout the campaign, Rajoy promised to cut the debt and get people back to work by reforming Spain's sclerotic labour laws. The indignados turn out to be very much minoritarios: the little, shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour.

If he wants to succeed, the new prime minister will have to press his advantage immediately. Spain could easily go the way of Portugal and Greece, and Rajoy's task is all the harder because, as long as Spain remains in the euro, the pain will not be accompanied by any obvious gain. Years of unleavened austerity loom, and voices from the PP's own statist tendency will start to demand that ministers 'do something' – meaning 'spend more'.

One of the curiosities of contemporary Europe is that, while people keep voting for Rightist parties, nothing much changes. Only three per cent of EU nationals now live under Left-led governments (those in Austria, Denmark, Cyprus and Slovenia – I don't think we can count Greece any more). Yet spending continues to rise (except on defence), bureaucracies continue to grow, powers continue to shift from national capitals to Brussels. Which brings us up against a hard truth. As long as most laws come from Brussels, and as long as economic policy comes from Frankfurt, it really doesn't matter how you vote.

This is, as the author rightly notes, an entirely meaningless outcome.

In Europe, being on the "right" only means one is not a 100% committed socialist. Classical liberalism (what we in the US confuse as conservatism) has been rendered nearly extinct in Western Europe.

The differences between "left" and "right" are merely differences in the degree of socialist tendencies.

Total bullshit, Dbl. You obviously have no clue about governments in Europe or what Socialism really is.

BubbleBliss wrote:
Total bullshit, Dbl. You obviously have no clue about governments in Europe or what Socialism really is.

I can't speak for Dbl but from what I've seen and read in various pieces over the years, it would seem to me that conservatives in Europe would be Democrats over here. Even AmberSpyglass (when he was mod) said such a while back.

BubbleBliss wrote:
Total bullshit, Dbl. You obviously have no clue about governments in Europe or what Socialism really is.

Oh were it so my young friend. Sadly, I know far more than you could imagine about Europe, her governments and socialism.

In fact I'm reading, even as I type, yet another book on this very topic!

Then point out to me the main characteristics of Socialism and explain to me exactly where in, for example Germany, the Socialism lies.
In your eyes, there's socialism and capitalism and nothing in between, which is simply not true.