Posted on 04/12/2006 8:28:24 PM PDT by CheyennePress
CONTINENTAL Europe is at a crossroads. No, scratch that. Continental Europe was at a crossroads a few years ago. This week, it appears to have chosen its path. Taken together, the results of Italy's general election (which turfed out an economic reformer in favour of a former EU president) and the French Government's cave-in to rioters protesting against employment law reform suggest that the strongest forces in Europe today are those of appeasement, stasis and socialism.
In Italy, voters were faced with a choice between media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, who was swept into office five years ago promising to cure the country's economic troubles, and the centre-left Romano Prodi, whose campaign was tinged with anti-Americanism. Certainly, Mr Berlusconi did not do himself any favours with his flamboyant campaign style. But the choice of Mr Prodi suggests Italy will turn its back on its alliance with the US and Mr Berlusconi's economic reforms. Italy's 24 per cent youth unemployment, anaemic growth (the lowest among industrialised nations) and broader malaise – demonstrated by a shrinking birth rate and armies of adults who live with their parents well into their 30s for lack of career-track jobs – will be major challenges for Mr Prodi's fragile nine-party coalition. These poll results will also be interpreted by Islamic fundamentalists as further Western capitulation to the threat of terrorism – recall the Madrid train bombings in 2003, which caused Spain's then pro-US government to be ousted.
Mr Berlusconi was a fierce defender of Western liberalism and the US who deployed troops to Iraq despite massive public opposition. Mr Prodi, on the other hand, famously responded to the Madrid bombings by saying: "It is clear using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists."
In France, meanwhile, riots in the heart of Paris have seen the Government abandon the most minor of economic reforms. Coming on the heels of last year's nationwide violence led by young Muslims from isolated urban ghettos, or banlieus, the latest round of protests was driven by middle-class whites opposed to a proposed law that would have encouraged employers to take on young workers by making it easier to sack poor performers.
The mob won and the Government caved: Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin scrapped the plan on Tuesday. Bad as that result was, the violence is symptomatic of France's deeper problems. A recent survey of 15- to 30-year-olds indicated that 76 per cent of French youth dream of becoming fonctionnaires – 35-hour-a-week civil servants with virtually lifetime employment.
The riots, in essence, were not for change (as they were last year) but for stasis. But this stasis, which seeks government insulation from any and all risk, is unsustainable. And in giving in to the mobs, France has sent a powerful and dangerous message that violence gets results.
None of this is good news for Europe. At a bare minimum, the past week's events suggest that this is a part of the world where no one is capable of facing reality. It also suggests a broader lack of cultural confidence. Europeans are not having children at replacement rates any more; birth rates are supported largely by Muslim immigrants. And that community's more radical members are increasingly flexing their political muscle in the face of a timorous host culture. An example is the fallout of the Danish cartoon controversy. In what was essentially a battle between theocratic and Enlightenment values, the theocrats largely won. Yes, there are some hopeful signs, such as Chancellor Andrea Merkel's reform-oriented leadership in Germany. But economic reforms can only go so far towards curing the deadening malaise at the heart of European society.
They're doomed. They'd better start stocking up on burkhas and prayer rugs.
Berlusconi ran on economic reform and it seems that he achieved very little. Why should he have been re-elected?
you would have a great time reading a book called,the united states of europe.....It tells us how the euopean nations are going to overtake the usa...For a good laugh,read it....
... or if it is worded like a typical EU resolution it might make good bedtime reading for those nights when I have trouble getting to sleep.
Well, let's see. The US, Australia, Britain, Japan, and India. In thirty years those will be the only democracies on the planet, provided Britain stays out of the EU.
That's a terrific editorial.
The author should have made it more clear, however, that the European countries that are swirling down the toilet of socialism (exactly the kind of socialism that the Democrat Party wants for America, by the way) are the countries of "Old Europe". Those former Soviet bloc countries ("New Europe") who have embraced capitalism are growing and prospering from what I understand.
No. The editorial criticizes "socialism" and therefore the Democrat Party. That kind of thing will never be seen in any of the dying dinosaur, liberal publications you mentioned.
the strongest forces in Europe today are those of appeasement, stasis and socialism.... No the strongest force in Europe is SECULARISM.
They have denied their Faith in God and may very well reap their self-imposed whirlwind.
Let Europe die; then America can settle the empty lands.
Britain is wobbly: it is going down the path of its (continental) European counterparts albeit at a slower rate:
http://www.rightwingnews.com/interviews/berlinski.php
"Those former Soviet bloc countries ("New Europe") who have embraced capitalism are growing and prospering from what I understand."
Yes, life is good here in Slovakia. No Muslims to speak of, and the church is quite strong here.
A building boom is going on here in Bratislava, with many new office buildings and apartments.
I see nothing but growth for the New Europe, unless the old Europe finds a way to drag it down.
Thanks for that report. I have heard that some businesses are actually fleeing places like Belgium and Germany in order to set up shop in countries of New Europe.
Old Europe won't drag down New Europe unless you let them.
bookmark
I'd start with "Because he's not a stinking Communist."
So France has gone down the route she always goes down.
Italy has political problems like its never happened before whoopee f******g doo.
Its the beginning end of the world I tell ya.
Sheese
Snigger new you would be in here somewhere talking about Britain.
You would take a thread on European fashion and use it to have a rant about Britain.
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