Under normal circumstances that would be a powerful issue, except that it was Chancellor Gerhard Schoder and the SDP who put policies in place that led to rise of temporary jobs and reduced wages. Suppressing wages boosted German imports but left a whole section of the population behind.
It is a continent-wide problem. According to the European Commission, almost one-third of Europe's workforce is part of the "gig" economy, many working for under minimum wage and without benefits. The replacement of employees with "independent contractors" has allowed companies like Uber to amass enormous wealth, but the company's drivers end up earning barely enough to get by.
In short, German voters did not trust the SDP and looked for alternatives. Given the hysteria around immigration, some choose the fascist Alternative for Germany. As odious as it is to have the inheritors of the Third Reich sitting in the Bundestag, it would be a mistake to think the Party's program was behind its success. The Alternative has nothing to offer but racism and reaction, and neither will do much to close the wealth gap in Germany.
Dublin has turned over a wing of its National Library to an exhibit of the great Irish poet and playwright, William Butler Yates, who is much quoted these days. A favorite seems to be some lines from "The Second Coming": "Thing fall apart; the Centre cannot hold...the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
On one level that seems a pretty good description of the rise of Europe's extreme rightwing parties, and the precipitous decline of center and center-left parties. It is an attractive literary simile, but misleading. It was the "Centre" that introduced many of the neo-liberal policies that wiped out industries, cut wages, and abandoned whole sections of the population. When French, British, German, Spanish, Italian and Greek socialists embraced free trade and wide-open markets over strong unions and social democracy, is it any wonder that voters in those countries abandoned them?
When center-left parties returned to their roots, as they did in Britain and Portugal, voters rewarded them. After being dismissed as a deluded leftist who would destroy the British Labour Party, suddenly Corbin is being talked of as a future prime minister. In the meantime, the alliance of the Portuguese Socialist Party with two other left parties is rolling back many of the more onerous austerity policies inflicted on Lisbon by the EU, sparking economic growth and a drop in the jobless rate.
Visually, Ireland is a lovely country, though one needs to prepare for prodigious amounts of rain and intimidatingly narrow roads (having destroyed two tires in 24 hours I was banished to riding shotgun half way through our trip). But while the meadows sweeping down from dark mountains in Kerry look timeless to the tourists who pack the scenic Ring, they are not. Ireland's modern landscape is a deception.
In 1845 the population of Kerry was 416 people per square mile, compared to 272 in England and Wales. Those sweeping meadows that the tourists ogle were crowded with cottages before three years of potato blight swept them all away, "Look at those great grass fields, empty for miles and miles away," wrote the Bishop of Clonfert in 1886,"every one of them contained once its little house, its potato ground, its patch of oats."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
