Rightist alternatives
The devastating defeat of socialist parties in elections across Europe confirms the failure of the much-touted model promoted during their famous summits… If German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder shares the same fate as Lionel Jospin and Massimo D’Alema, then Europe will witness a complete U-turn as British Prime Minister Tony Blair has already taken a more liberal path and conservative governments are gradually making a comeback in smaller countries. However,the collapse of social democratic governments has not been followed by the ascendance of a consistent model of conservative governments. There are at least three different models, some of which straddle the far-rightist fence. The first model is that of Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar or France’s President Jacques Chirac: a center-rightist government with an emphasis on deregulation and entrepreneurship but also belief in a social security network. Such governments have in past decades provided solutions to the impasses created by socialist governments. The second model is that of Silvio Berlusconi in Italy. An extremely liberal one, it favors the Americanization of the EU but has estranged itself from the labor force and is under unionist pressure despite favoring job creation and growth. The third and most perilous model is that of Austria, where a center-right party has to govern along with a xenophobic far-rightist one that has rejected EU achievements.
