SOCIALISTS FOR PROGRESS

The French Socialists New European Identity

A tiny little sliver call themselves libertarians, or socialists, or some other small third party, and the largest block, 40 percent, say they're independents.

French Socialists will not renounce their traditional commitments nor should they. But they now have the opportunity to contribute to the European model s renewal.

And if you look at them, the slate of the post colonial leaders an assortment of military fufu heads, Swiss bank socialists, crocodile liberators, vampire elites, quack revolutionaries.

The ruling parties in Serbia (the Socialist Party of Serbia and its coalition partners) and in Montenegro (the Democratic Party of Socialists) gained a broad majority in the Federal Chamber.

The Socialists can govern without limits, so it is up to them to govern well. It is this uncertainty that hovers over the future of France, if not that of Europe.

The internal debates will be heated and their conclusions difficult for some to accept. But I am happy that the French Socialists have made a powerful statement on behalf of the Treaty.

Back then, the Communist Party was still powerful, and maintained close ties with the Soviet Union. The prospect that the Party could come to power in an electoral alliance with the Socialists struck fear in opponents.

Equally, this case does not touch upon the post war circumstances of the mandatory transfer of the Sudeten German population, a policy undertaken after the National Socialists' catastrophic misuse of the idea of German self determination.

Whether it is conservatives like Sarkozy, Christian Democrats like Merkel, right wing populists like Berlusconi, or socialists like Zapatero, political affiliation appears to make no difference. If you hold office in Europe nowadays, you are in trouble.

It would lead first to the end of the Socialist Party created by François Mitterrand. Following Lionel Jospin s humiliating defeat in 2002, the Socialists simply would not survive a second consecutive failure to reach the second round.

In the early years, Israel was admired by Western leftists for being a progressive state, run by Polish and Russian socialists. Today s Israeli leaders, however, in their rhetoric and behavior, often sound more like the old European anti Semites.

It should be clear that the role for the state that I have been describing is an enabling or market supporting one. It is not the command and control role promoted by traditional socialists or the minimalist role beloved by neoliberals.

Paradoxically, though, great deal hangs on the elections outcome. The number of seats won by the socialists and centre right parties is likely to influence the make up of the next European Commission and thus the EU s political agenda until 2014.

Communist parties, more or less reformed as socialists, appeal to a surprising number of voters. In some countries, like Slovakia and Poland, far right nationalist parties provide another alternative, by offering the soothing appeal of traditional values and familiar enemies.

In the 1950 s, Japanese ministers and industrialists sometimes relied on nationalist elements of Yakuza groups to quash unions and socialists. The gangs then upheld classic Japanese virtues of manliness and loyalty and paid for mistakes by slicing off one of their fingers in atonement.

Nor is it clear that Spanish socialists have more in common with German social democrats than with their fellow nationals. Each ideological grouping would most likely become factionalized along complex national lines divisions likely to be reflected in the ensuing competition to be charismatic.

In the first few decades of its modern existence, when it was largely run by socialists, Israel was mainly supported by the world s liberal left. In fact, the last US administration to be somewhat tough on the Israeli government was that of the Republican George H.W. Bush.

There has been progress on all these issues, guided by a report entitled For a progressive Europe delivered by Pascal Lamy to the European Socialist Party s leader, former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. But European Socialists remain divided German and British members oppose higher spending and fiscal homogeneity.

Last but not least, Hollande is not likely to call into question Sarkozy s decision in 2009 to reintegrate France into NATO s military command. That decision remains controversial in France, including among Socialists, but Hollande is well aware of the weaknesses of a European defense policy that simply cannot compete with NATO.

In France, more than 7 of voters cast their ballots for Trotskyite and Communist candidates in the first round of the presidential election, while the Socialists, who received 27 of the votes, are much more left leaning than Germany s Social Democrats. Dirigiste attitudes are more popular in France than in most other European countries.

The Socialists anointment of Ségolène Royal s as their presidential candidate is an important step on the road to the Fifth Republic s eighth presidential election, which is set for April 22, 2007, with a second round runoff two weeks later. All candidates should be known by the end of January the deadline for printing the ballots.

Long term stagnation and high unemployment are the likely result of confrontation with the eurozone, which leaves only the path of renegotiation. The new political balance emerging in Europe after the Socialists victory in France s presidential election creates scope for changes in the terms of the loan agreement that would help to boost economic growth.

In fact, though the EPP won 29 of the seats, versus 24 for the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S D), the S D can claim victory. After all, its affiliated parties at the national level won a greater number of votes a combined total of 40 million, compared to 39.9 million for parties affiliated with the EPP.

Second, France, under its new center left government, must demonstrate that the European model of a market economy coupled with strong social solidarity can be reformed and strengthened, rather than abandoned not just in Europe s more pragmatic north, but also in its more ideological south. French Socialists will not renounce their traditional commitments nor should they.

Finally, while this election was expected to usher in a new generation of politicians, few were prepared to anticipate the peaceful political tsunami that a Bayrou victory would bring. Yet that would be the outcome if the attraction towards the center proves to be as irresistible for significant segments of the Socialists and conservative parties as it now seems .

As a result, French Socialists always positioned themselves to the left of their European partners, giving a major economic role to the state following the big nationalizations that took place in 1981 after François Mitterrand was first elected president. Later it fought against Tony Blair s Third Way and Gerhard Schröder s new center in the late 1990 s.

That December vote on the EU Constitutional Treaty closed this parenthesis by approving of it, the Socialists consciously accepted a reformist, social democratic, European identity. They have positioned themselves as a great power on the left, with a central position in the European Socialist Party, offering an alternative to the prescriptions of New Labour and the SPD.

The problem is that far too many of Sarkozy s decisions have proved purely symbolic, like the ill fated Mediterranean Union badly conceived, such as judicial reform, which is opposed by virtually the entire legal profession or nakedly self serving, like the administrative reform, which somehow managed to abolish only those departments and regional administrations controlled by the opposition Socialists.

Syriza is more a coalition than a unified party, meaning that its leader, Alexis Tsipras, must reconcile moderate socialists, including some of his economic advisers, with radical left wing members. The implementation and impact of Syriza s agenda, especially its decisive economic program, will depend on the new government s ability to maintain support at home and compromise with Greece s creditors abroad.

Two years ago, when shockwaves from the collapse of the US housing bubble crashed onto European shores, these political leaders reacted with apparent vigor, making themselves rather popular for a while. Paradoxically, the early stages of the financial crisis appeared to favor conservative and pro market leaders who seemed to be in a better position to save the economy more than socialists.

The victory of Hollande, who has said that he wants to renegotiate the European Union s new, German backed fiscal compact, will weigh heavily in this debate. Furthermore, the Socialists now control not only the presidency and the government, but also a majority in the Senate, all of the regional presidencies, 55 of the country s departments, and most major cities town halls.

One reason is that she is the only fresh face among those Socialists vying for the party nomination. Laurent Fabius, Martine Aubry, Dominique Strauss Kahn, Jack Lang, and even Hollande are all former senior ministers who neutralized each other, while Lionel Jospin, the former Prime Minister, decided to put an end to his political career after his defeat in 2002.

Meanwhile, the Senate, the French parliament s upper house, a conservative bastion between the two world wars and ever since, swung to a Socialist majority for the first time in history at the end of 2011. The Socialists also control 20 of France s 22 regional governments, a majority of the presidencies of the Departments, and most cities with more than 30,000 inhabitants.

Powerful mainstream Socialists, such as former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, joined traditional leftist minorities in the party either rigidly euroskeptic or unrealistically euromaximalist to rally around refusal. This stance came as a shock from Fabius, a signatory of the Single Act of 1986, a party leader during the Maastricht Treaty negotiations, and Finance Minister when France adopted the euro in 2001.

Furthermore, the Socialists now control not only the presidency and the government, but also a majority in the Senate, all of the regional presidencies, 55 of the country s departments, and most major cities town halls. In less than two months, they may control a majority of the National Assembly as well, implying a concentration of power that has never before been seen in modern France.

Gülenist machinations in the judiciary and other parts of the bureaucracy have created a broad spectrum of opposition pretty much everyone nationalists, Kurdish activists, secularists, traditional Islamists, socialists, and liberals has been at the receiving end of these intrigues at one time or another. Erdoğan could, in principle, mobilize a coalition that transcends his own AKP to support reforms aimed at returning the judiciary to its proper role.

Populist demagogues in politics and the mass media are doing everything they can to discredit the quality press as propaganda organs for left wing elites who sneer at the views of ordinary Americans. Santorum pretends to speak for these people that is, for a minority of Americans who are mostly white, provincial, highly religious, deeply conservative on cultural and social issues, and convinced that Obama and all Europeans are dangerous godless socialists.

Since the lawful nature of its purpose is a basic condition for the validity of an association, the court considered that, on the basis of its statutes, this association had been established publicly to contest the existence of the crimes against humanity committed by the National Socialists during the Second World War, an activity prohibited by article 24 bis of the Act of 28 July 1881 on Freedom of the Press (No. 93 127 A4).

Princeton If anyone wanted evidence that we are not in the mental and political world of the interwar Great Depression, the German election result and its outcome a stable government of the center right should be a clincher. In interwar Germany, the Depression destroyed German democracy and led to the rise to power of Hitler and the National Socialists in today s Germany, the most severe economic crisis since the Second World War produced the reelection of Frau Merkel.

Clearly, political calculations played a role Fabius intuitively felt that the French, especially those on the left, oppose the construction of Europe in its current form, and that carrying the banner of rejection could win him the party leadership and thus its presidential nomination in 2007. This reasoning proved wrong the Socialists members and voters know that there is no alternative to Europe and accepted the Treaty as a means of going further, despite its imperfections.

Princeton 45 45 If anyone wanted evidence that we are not in the mental and political world of the interwar Great Depression, the German election result and its outcome a stable government of the center right should be a clincher. In interwar Germany, the Depression destroyed German democracy and led to the rise to power of Hitler and the National Socialists in today s Germany, the most severe economic crisis since the Second World War produced the reelection of Frau Merkel.