…until people experience enough of it, that is:
France’s governing Socialists have suffered big losses in municipal elections, with the opposition UMP claiming victory and the far right celebrating further gains.
These are local contests, but they indicate a dissatisfaction with the Socialists. However, the way voters have been going in recent years (including in this country), there’s a strong tendency for fickleness, and a “what have you done for me lately?” mentality that causes rather large and temporary pendulum swings. Only time will tell whether this is a more lasting change.
And, just as in the US, the very biggest cities tend to remain most strongly leftist:
The centre-right UMP was said to have captured a number of key cities, including Toulouse, Quimper, Limoges, Saint-Etienne, Reims, Roubaix and Tourcoing.The Socialists retained control of Paris, with their candidate Anne Hidalgo due to become the capital’s first female mayor.
Remember, too, that left and right in Europe are not the same as in the US. For starters, the colors are reversed (as they used to be in the US), with red for the left. But more importantly, in Europe the entire apparatus is shifted to the left in general.
[Neo-neocon is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at neo-neocon.]
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