On 7 mars 11, at 06:22, SA wrote:
> On 3/6/2011 4:05 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
>
>> Second, on the whole, political discourse in France has clearly moved
>> left since the crisis, not to the right.
>> ----
>>
>> Left in the sense of reform? or more?
>
> Left in the sense of more opposition to business, capitalism, neoliberalism, banks, etc., than there was before.
(Back from Tokyo ;) Except that the PS is still not really following suit and the other left parties are too week to put any pressure on it. The PS seems to be more riding the protest wave than leading it, which is the reason why Marine Le Pen, who has chosen a less conflictual approach than her father, is faring so well in the polls.
Marine has managed to split the Sarkozian right in the middle and my idea is that more than weakening a left response (which is weak in and by itself) it has considerably weakened Sarkozy.
To Wojtek who wrote "Yet another evidence that when the economy goes south, "da people" tend to go fascist, not socialist." and with whom I fully agree, the problem in France and I guess in the US and other places, is that "left" government parties have given up on the poor and focus on the middle class which is shrinking like ice in the sun under the attacks of the capitalists. That's exactly what we saw with the PS since Mitterand : when you check the raise of the FN in France you see that it corresponds exactly to the Mitterand presidency.
But PS members are totally blind to that and are starting to consider that "maybe DSK is after all our last hope" to get the seat, which, if that happens I am convinced marks the death of the PS that has been agonizing since 2007...
Jean-Christophe Helary