You make some very good points, all correct!
There seems to be no politician on that scene which can overcome the inertia or thrust of the Labor/Green/Socialist coalitions and turn things around.
It will take hard, hard events to do that. IMHO, it is questionable they can subsequently survive the coming upheavals as democratic societies to take proper action afterwards. Otherwise, they face more rounds of totalitarian and fascist regimes.
Their only hope is to accept the Eastern (former) Europeans in order to tax them and redistribute the wealth. Read the proposed constitution which eliminates all state rights and makes all members subservient to the rules of the Aristocrats in Brussels. Frightening. That's why you have seen the love fest and collaboration between Germany and France. There is one ray of hope. Most presnt and proposed EU members may not want a destruction of their soveignty AND OPT OUT OF MEMBERSHIP LEAVING 4-5 IN THE PRESENT UNION
There seems to be no politician on that scene which can overcome the inertia or thrust of the Labor/Green/Socialist coalitions and turn things around. Well in Germany, that almost did happen last election. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP) came about BUSH-GORE close to beating the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens. Ironically if more people would have voted for the socialist party (PDS), they would have gotten thier 5% and this would have forced a "big coalition" between the SPD and CDU. Some think this kind combination would be the only possiblity to do serious reform.
Of coarse the SPD and CDU could join up any time they liked. Why doesn't this happen? Divisive politics, just like in the US. The CDU spents so much time critizing the SPD/Green goverment, it would be hard for them to negotiate a coalition with SPD.
What I'd like: a "big coalition" or something else with a lot of cloat comes in and slaughters the special intrests perks all at once. They cut subsidies, open up the drug market, trash union goodies, trash big buisness goodies, and then revist ever stinking micromanaging law and clean those up too. When the smoke clears they should give us an honest idea how the social system is doing, so people can know if they can count on it or not.