by George Dorgan
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click to expand, source Alexandre Afonso
The tendency of the European parliament elections seems to be that in the Northern countries rather right-wing parties obtain more votes, like British UKIP, German AFD, Danish People’s Party, Austrian FPÖ or Sweden Democrats. In the austerity countries the left-wing movements are getting stronger and stronger, led by SYRIZA in Greece and Sinn Fein in Ireland, Spanish Podemos and Syriza-inspired “AltraEU” in Italy. In Greece the total anti-EU movements make up 60% of the voters. The French Front National and the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle possess both right-wing and anti-austerity elements.
The graph to the right confirms our view that the right-wing had more success in the North.
click to expand: A chart to distinguish populist parties, source Counterpoint
As opposed to what the mainstream reports, the economic dangers are the left-wing elements, in particular SYRIZA, but also IP and Podemos in Spain.
Greece but also Spain or Italy desperately need years of stagnating or falling wages to increase competitiveness. The left-wing parties could prolong the return to this target.
The next graph shows that many right-wing parties are not fascist or nationalist – with some exceptions coloured red. Both German AFD and Beppo Grillo’s 5 Star Movement obtain nearly everywhere a green light.
One addition for general knowledge: Both left-wing and right-wing are populist, in the sense that fulfil the wishes of the ordinary people against the wishes of the ruling elite.
But the mainstream media tries to move only the right-wingers to the “populist corner”.
As for the meaning of populist:
“Democratic” is of Greek origin and comes from demos, meaning common people.
“Populist” is Latin origin and comes from populus, meaning people.
Is Greek better than Latin?
Are you the author?Tags: AfD,SP
