> It seems that the entire left-wing in Germany is dissolving. Schroeder's
> economic plan looks like Blairism. He even seems to want to "modernise" the
> SDP ala New Labour. Will the left-wingers put up with that? What is
> Lafontaine doing? Won't the trade unions object? I'd be interested to hear
> what the German listmembers think about all this. It seems to me like a
> pretty monumental event if Germany is going the way of Britain.
Dissolved? Did IG Metall disband? The Greens and the PDS disappear as a political force? From what I gather from the EU press, there's massive dissension bubbling up from the grassroots, the unions are NOT happy with any of the Soc Dem governments, and in consequence the Soc Dems got trounced in the EU Parliamentary elections (voters did elect lots of Far Left delegates, though). What's keeping the Dragon of Red-Green mobilization (gotta love those Dragonball Z metaphors) at bay, for now, is the EU's 10% unemployment rates. But now that the ECB cut short rates to 2.5%, and with the European Investment Bank throwing lots of money around, things are going to get racy in the Eurostate. Hell, now even hopelessly monetarist *Sweden* is slashing interest rates and refunding its welfare state.
-- Dennis