France's Socialists, Poised To Win The Presidential Election, Have An Alternative To Austerity

Unpopular European Austerity reactionaries

Saturday hundreds of thousands of Portuguese workers took to the streets of Lisbon to protest international capital's demand for a European Austerity Agenda, more and more frequently being seen as a German takeover. To meet German bailout terms, the conservative government there is raising taxes of workers and severely-- like in Mitt Romney-- cutting social programs.

Many were brandishing banners such as "The struggle continues" and "No to exploitation, no to inequality, no to impoverishment."

The CGTP union which called the march estimated 300,000 people took part, while police would not give any figures, in line with their usual practice.

"We are convinced that it is one of the biggest demonstrations in the last 30 years," said Armenio Carlos, general secretary of the CGTP, in a speech at the end of the protest in the landmark Praca do Comercio (Commerce Square).

He launched sharp attacks against the bailout conditions, calling them "a programme of aggression against workers and against the national interest."

"Austerity did not create wealth. The country needs the rope around its neck to be removed so that it can breathe, live and work," the unionist said, calling for a revision to the minimum wage of 485 euros gross.

"Net salary is at 432 euros, while the poverty line is at 434 euros, and that concerns currently ... 400,000 workers" in Portugal, he said.

He vowed that protests will continue in coming weeks, and that fresh demonstrations will be held across the country on February 29.

In exchange for a loan of 78 billion euros ($103 billion) from the EU and the IMF last May, Portugal agreed to sell public companies as well as implement labour reforms such as introducing shorter holidays.

However, many complain their lives have got worse.

"My purchasing power has fallen, young people are unemployed, companies are closing one after another. I don't see a way out," said a Lisbon retiree.

The situation is worse in Greece, where the country's social cohesion is being threatened as the elites agree to a German takeover detested by the Greek people. There, the just agreed upon Austerity agenda Germany dictated dramatically slashes wages, pensions and jobs in return for a bailout of the banksters and social parasites who have run up Greece's debts. Lucas Papademos, the puppet prime minister installed by Germany, threatened that unless his austerity program was accepted, a disorderly default is inevitable and it would "set the country on a disastrous adventure... It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion. The country would be drawn into a vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and protracted misery and this would sooner or later lead the country out of the euro." I wonder if the German's are handing out the same script to their puppet regimes in Italy and Spain as well. Yesterday, Athens on fire, the public order minister resigned-- and the German collaborators passed another Austerity budget, sparking full on rioting. (Photo of the coffee at Starbucks getting extra roasted.)

The government saw 43 deputies rebel in what may be an indication of the difficulties in ensuring politicians stick to the programme, which include a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage – a package critics say condemns the economy to an ever-deeper downward spiral.

Police said 150 shops were looted in the capital and 48 buildings set ablaze. Some 100 people – including 68 police – were wounded and 130 detained, a police official said on Monday.

There was also violence in cities across the country, including Thessaloniki and the islands of Corfu and Crete.

Athenians were shocked at the burnt buildings that included the neoclassical home to the Attikon cinema dating from 1870... Altogether 199 of the 300 lawmakers backed the controversial bill. The 43 who rebelled were immediately expelled by their parties, Pasok and New Democracy.

The French people, on the other hand, are signaling they're not ready to succumb without a fight and seem eager to kick out Austerity cheerleader Nicolas Sarkozy and replace him with Socialist François Hollande.

Giving an impassioned and polished attack on the speculation and profiteering that led to the economic crisis that has engulfed Europe, Hollande told the 20,000-strong crowd: "My enemy is the world of finance." Belatedly, French company directors, investment bankers and market movers are waking up to the growing popularity of a presidential candidate who promises to raise taxes on rich individuals and big business in order to boost growth.

With the first round of the French elections barely two months away, the polls suggest that Hollande is choosing the right adversaries. On the day he visited Dijon one survey suggested he would win a straight contest with President Nicolas Sarkozy, gaining as much as 60% of the vote.

For a politician habitually described as slightly bland, the transformation into a fêted "tribune of the people" must come as something of a shock. Up until this election campaign Hollande, 57, was known for his love of a joke, his portly mastery of the backroom politics of the Socialist party (PS), and his failed marriage to the former siren of French socialism, Ségolène Royale, who lost the presidential election of 2007.

...Hollande unveiled a 60-point programme for government. In recognition of the parlous state of French finances, there is a commitment to reduce the budget deficit to 3% (from well above 5%) by 2013. The list of austerity measures includes a freeze on public sector recruitment. But the route to sound accounts is principally by way of tax rises rather than cuts, and most of them are directed at the upper tiers of French society.

Pledges include raising the top rate of income tax to 45%, capping tax breaks for wealthy individuals at €10,000 (£8,375) and significantly hiking capital gains tax. The biggest companies in France will also be taxed at a higher rate, while smaller companies will pay less.

"Those who have benefited from crazy pay levels will have to make an effort," said Hollande at the document's launch. The revenue generated, says the PS, will be used to promote growth as well as cut the deficit. Hollande promises state-funded apprenticeships for the young, thousands of new teachers, a new public investment bank and new research and innovation programmes. Without growth, his aides insist, deficits will never be brought under control, as governments across Europe are discovering to their dismay.

Is social democracy in one country possible? Since the global banking crisis struck in 2008, centre-left governments in Britain, Spain and Greece have paid the price. The large majority of the 27 governments of the EU are now of the right and all have focused their energies on cutting spending and shrinking the state. Austerity has become the watchword of a continent. But not for the first time, the French may be about to go against the grain.

The language inside the modest Hollande campaign headquarters, five minutes' walk from the Eiffel Tower, has not been heard in a British election campaign for 30 years or more. Benoît Hamon, the PS spokesman, believes that Europe's social democratic parties "gave up too early" on the idea that governments should play a central role in regulating markets, finding people jobs and driving economic growth. "For years there has been this anomaly that in the globalised market it is the markets that govern in place of elected governments. Basta! Enough!

"We're being up front, saying: 'If you're a rich individual or a rich company, yes, you're going to pay more.' We're saying the same to the banks and we're telling them they won't pass the charges on to their clients."

Karine Berger, one of Hollande's most senior economic advisers and a parliamentary candidate for a rural seat in the Alps, rejects the idea that the wealth of the very top earners in France corresponds to benefits they bring to the wider society. "We believe that there are some people who play a more important role than others," she says, "But they are not the people earning stratospheric wages. They are the engineers, the scientists, the people building companies, not necessarily the top executives or the big traders."

What if the executives and traders threaten to up sticks and go elsewhere? Her reply is unequivocal.

"Look, we want to say to France: 'We want everyone on board, especially those people inventing the future.' And our government will be committed to sound finance and getting public debt under control. We are very serious about that. But for those people holding society to ransom, let them leave." She doesn't think they will... Berger admits that some of the big beasts of French business are beginning to warn that they could "make life difficult" for a Hollande presidency.

The French right is panic stricken and are beating up on Sarkozy to start a counterattack. Since he can't very well run on Austerity, which is hated all through the country, his plan is to demonize immigrants and welfare recipients and see if he can open up some wedges in French society. He has a 32% approval rating, something like Mitt Romney's. Angela Merkel has gone on French TV to demand Sarkozy get a second term, which isn't going over as well as the Sarkozy reelection team had hoped.