We live in Europe where currently any alternative suggestion about how to structure our society and economy is met with negative criticism by the media and the vast majority of our society. Any movement or development that questions the “economic orthodoxy” is treated at best as non realistic and at worst as dangerous. At the same time, the rise of nationalism, racism, fascism and Nazism does not seem to ra ...

Elections in Western parliamentary systems are always about the center. The standard situation is one in which there are two dominant parties – one somewhat right of center and one somewhat left of center. There are differences between the policies these parties pursue when in office, but there are also enormous similarities. The election never reflects a profound political split. Rather, it is about recent ...

The French and Greek elections have already shifted Europe's politics. But it needs real change to hold the right at bay. Revolt against austerity is sweeping Europe. The election of François Hollande has not only opened up the chance of a change of direction in France, but even in the citadels of fiscal orthodoxy in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin. In Greece, Sunday's electoral earthquake has all but destro ...

The main message of the elections of May 6 is the denouncement of the austerity measures and their main supporters. The parties of the previous governmental coalition PASOK (socialists) and Nea Dimokratia (conservatives) that support the memoranda and the harsh austerity policies suffered huge losses. In particular, they lost about 3.000.000 votes and received together 32% of the total votes. This is a dram ...

Anti-immigration platform finds plenty of supporters with fascist far-right party Chrysi Avgi polling at 5% It is 9 o'clock on a Saturday evening and the stairwell in the apartment block at 50 Deleyiannis is jammed with young men engaging in banter. Most are dressed in black with little or very short hair, some wear black caps emblazoned with the words Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn), almost all ripple with muscl ...

The elections of May 6th take place in a moment that people are facing the absolute misery. After two years of implementation of the destructive policies of the 'memorandums' (cc. the commitments of the Greek government towards the EU, the ECB and the IMF), the Greek elite, the EU, the IMF and the bankers hold the gun to people's head trying to gain moral and political justification for their policies. Duri ...

The new French president will have to make a decision about a European treaty that would demand still greater austerity. The choice will affect the future of France, and of Europe. Will the French elect a different president, but leave unresolved all the issues raised in the election of 2007? The French would welcome a change of government: because, apart from President Sarkozy’s egregious shortcomings — hi ...

Hard Times Lift Greece’s Anti-Immigrant Fringe Nikos Michaloliakos, the leader of Golden Dawn, greeted voters this month in Megara, Greece. By RACHEL DONADIO and DIMITRIS BOUNIAS ATHENS — On a recent morning in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Papagou here, members of the Greek ultranationalist group Golden Dawn stood at an outdoor vegetable market campaigning for the coming national elections. “This ...

For all the talk about a democratic crisis in euroland, politicians gave much of their sovereignty away in the past decade A novel sight was on display in southern Europe yesterday: voters actually choosing their next prime minister. Over the past month, the Greeks and Italians have seen their leaders tossed out of office and replaced with unelected technocrats. In the case of Spain, which went to the polls ...