Syriza in Greece climbed into power knocking violently on the “caste” club’s door. Podemos in Spain threatens with kicking the door down. Will they get their policies out?
Plenty has been written these days about the election results in Greece. Syriza, the new old school left-wing party has provoked stock markets to shiver, conservatives to rub their eyes, Venezuelan Chavistas to mumble in ecstasy and antiglobalisation hipsters to believe their moment is now. Probably it would not be too exaggerating to state that some post-May ’68 winds are blowing in this cold and confusing European winter. Alexis Tsipras and Pablo Iglesias are the new olive oil Robin Hoods. But why are these thirty-something working-class heroes becoming political stars?
The failure of caviar socialism
Lets try to throw some light into this political mess. In a moment in which according to Mario Draghi, the worst of the crisis has been left behind, it is time to search for culprits. Rather predictable.Revenge is a popular concept among Mediterranean cultures. Hence austerity, troika, rescue, Euro, Merkel and the “caste” of samo (same old) politicians are the usual suspects.
And normally, suspects may be guilty of something. While from the other side of the pond, voices were instructing European economists and ministers to launch a modern sort of New Deal, Brussels and Berlin did the opposite. In the US, capitalism is too sacred as to turn the lights off. But in Europe the ball ended overnight. Everyone knows that Germans can`t party: austerity, frugality, rigour, formality, moderation, rigidity, prudence, seriousness, strictness… Like a rainy Monday that lasted six years. No fun.
Every now and then, from hisNew York Times column The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman has insisted on anti-austerity (aka Keynessian) policies and probably without realising, giving us the clues to understand the new anti-establishment leftist movements in Southern Europe.
“In today’s column I am not nice to Francois Hollande, who has shown about as much strength in standing up to austerians as a wet Kleenex. But one does have to admit that he’s not alone in his haplessness; where, indeed, are the major political figures on the European left taking a stand against disastrous policies? Britain’s Labour Party has been almost surreally unwilling to challenge Cameron/Osborne’s core premises; is anyone doing better?” (NYT Aug. 2th, 2014)
Long story short: the calamitous failure of the European caviar socialist to oppose austerity and defend the interest of their people. The tragedy of the left may well be that when left wingers have too much to lose they renounce their principles avec plaisir. What is it with good wine and fine scented bistros?
Let’s assume with certain optimism that up to 2008 the Western world did no longer require the aggressive defence of working class interests because the working classes had dramatically improved their living conditions. Classic socialism had gradually lost its reason to be and therefore modern socialists their radical spirit. Fine. Time to enjoy bourgeois pleasures in the name of the accomplishments. Who could deny the charm of champagne flying in business class?
Bridging the confidence gap
Possibly, with the exception of the UK, where social classes is still part of any Brit’s DNA, the rest of the continent seemed to have arrived to the end of the class system, just after the end of ideology (D. Bell) and the end of history (F. Fukuyama). Even in Britain, Tony Blair’s New Labour admitted the contradictions of the old principles and was delighted to sell out to the obvious new reality. Marxism was no longer political, but historical (and hysterical, too). Workers of the world… just go to the mall, would ya!?
But the economic crisis brought back old confrontations and a new difficult-to-accept proletarisation of the lower strata of our societies. The austerity measures just widened the gap between the north and south, the rich and poor. The rigidity of their implementation precipitated the social breakdown. Several and complex consequences followed.
On the one hand, immigrants started to be looked at funny. Funny peculiar. Not funny ha ha. And they reacted first by burning cars, then embracing religious fundamentalism. The rest we know; or we think we do. Xenophobic extreme-right wing parties toasting to the Troika’s myopia. But, on the other hand, millions of people falling into 19th century style poverty and many more millions frustrated and outraged by the lack of representativeness of their representatives, disgusted by the indecent disdain with which the political establishment addressed their disgrace. And where were the socialists? Picking up their Armani suits from the dry cleaning.
Initially, these are the voters of Syriza in Greece and the potential voters of Podemos in Spain. And their leaders, the new avengers of the impoverished. Young leftwing-trained anti-establishment social agitators with proficiency in the use of social media and extraordinary communication skills that have a great capacity to interpret the people’s discontent for which they have their own diagnosis and solutions.
Something is wrong. Political scientists label it the confidence gap. This is, the growing distance between politicians, more worried about the markets and their personal wellbeing, and the citizens, who always pay the check for the obscure deals in the highest spheres.
Corruption scandals by status quo politicians are aired in the media daily. And, once again, people suspiciously tend to be more indulgent with right wing crooks than with the socialists. Perhaps a question of historically assigned political principles. Just look at Spain and Greece.
For the conservative parties this is only a question of becoming more conservative to attract the vote of the scared white Europeans. No problem. The Gaullist in France will presumably re-elect Sarkozy to avoid Marine Le Pen’s accession. And the same could be imitated in many other EU countries. The right is mostly coherent. Even if they claim so, nobody expects them to behave too morally. But the socialists parties have been more worried with making important friends for their blink-blink retirements (Blair, Schroeder, Papandreu, Zapatero, Prodi, etc.) than to protect their constituents from harshness. And people do expect certain ethics from left wingers, really. A duty or a curse?
Syriza in Greece climbed into power knocking violently on the “caste” club’s door. And Podemos in Spain threatens with kicking the door down. Will they stay for long? Will they get their populist policies out? Are the established parties (and their friends) going to allow this? What are the real chances of Podemos in Spain?
Stay tuned. Next week some answers.
