Comment on Greek vote shows growing European backlash against austerity

By The Associated Press, San Antonio Express-News: World
Mon, 01/26/2015 - 10:43am

Greek vote shows growing European backlash against austerity

Many Spaniards are exasperated by government cutbacks amid recent economic misery and say the policies are partly to blame for a jobless rate close to 24 percent. Spain holds a general election this year, with opinion polls indicating the party's support already equals that of the country's two mainstream parties. Recent surveys have given the Northern League more than 12 percent of the vote, nearly double what the anti-immigrant and Euroskeptic party was polling at the time of the European Parliament elections. Cuts in pay, pensions and public services, and steep tax increases were introduced in recent years to pay off national debt. Small far-left parties such as the Portuguese Communist Party and the Left Bloc, and a handful of new civic groups including a Portuguese version of neighboring Spain's Podemos, are fighting those policies. After successfully exiting its own debt-driven bailout last year, six straight years of austerity in Ireland have driven hard-left opposition parties to unprecedented heights in opinion polls despite Ireland's post-bailout return to eurozone-leading growth. According to the latest opinion polls, if France were to hold its presidential election today, Le Pen would lead in the first round — but lose in the second round. Though it is not represented in parliament, the populist party Alternative for Germany has had recent successes in state elections, and current polls put its growing support as high as around 10 percent. Polls put the Freedom Party level, or even slightly ahead, of each of the parties in Austria's governing coalition — the Socialists and the centrist People's Party.

 

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