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Oxford historian Timothy Garton Ash discusses
the demise of Europe's social democrats, threats to the European Union
posed by populist nationalists, the imminent change of government in
Great Britain and America's rapid slide to the left.
SPIEGEL: Professor Garton Ash, in the midst of the worst
economic crisis since the Great Depression voters have turned away from
the social democrats and socialists in European elections. Isn't this
paradoxical?
Timothy Garton Ash: I think there's an explanation for it.
First, voters apparently feel that the conservatives and liberals are
more competent when it comes to economic policy. Second, we are
witnessing a return to nationalism as a reaction to the great crisis.
And when that happens, voters tend to move to the right rather than to
the left, in some cases quite far to the right.
SPIEGEL: It would seem that leftists, the critics of capitalism, would stand to benefit from a crisis of capitalism.
Garton Ash: In essence, you have two social democratic parties
in Germany, just as we do in Great Britain - with some minor
differences. David Cameron's Conservatives are taking (former Prime
Minister) Tony Blair's approach, except when it comes to European
policy. And there is no decisive difference between the Christian
Democrats and the Social Democrats in Germany, at least not by the
standards of the last century.
SPIEGEL: In other words, we lack ideological differences, and we are all social democrats?
Garton Ash: I think so. We are not talking about capitalism as
such, but about the question of which form of capitalism works best in
our country. And then there is the question of competency. Our
governments are behaving more and more like managers. After 10 years,
voters are dissatisfied with the current management, and along comes a
new one.
SPIEGEL: The left lost its identity as a result of politicians
like Tony Blair and (former German Chancellor) Gerhard Schroder, who
believed in the free market and abandoned old social democratic
principals. Isn't that the reason for their defeat throughout Europe?
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