The Left is Out and the Right is In

The Left is Out and the Right is In

By: Erreh Svaia

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

George Bernard Shaw

The recent events involving the triumph of Donald Trump in the USA elections and the death of Fidel Castro in Cuba, act both as almost symbolic events meaning a massive global shift to the political right wing, the apparent "death or decadence of the Bolivarian Revolution" not only in Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay), but also in Southern Europe (Spain and Greece), where the left represented in Latin America by the now orphaned Cuba dictatorship, the disastrous Venezuela, first with the populist Hugo Chávez and now with the inept Nicolas Maduro, and the near monarchical Nicaragua (with Cuban styled family monarchy led by Fidel pupil Daniel Ortega), or in Europe with the weak socialdemocracies in Portugal and Italy, the incumbent left in France (with a recent Hollande renouncing to aspirations for a second term) and the isolated left wing populism in Spain (Podemos) and Greece (Syriza led by Alexis Tsipras), without a truly strong and factible project to confront the far right. 

Latin America started quickly it's trip to the right wing shores, with the electoral defeat of "Kirchnerism-Peronism" by Mauricio Macri, who managed to win the elections against a Cristina Kirchner pupil) and the impeachment of Lula Da Silva alumni Dilma Rousseff, in Argentina and Brazil respectively, while on Europe, Mariano Rajoy and his right wing Partido Popular (Popular Party) came as a winner over left wing parties (the legendary, now troubled PSOE and the populist Podemos) after a long political struggle of a year in Spain, just as France's Socialist Party (now with Manuel Vals as its only hope) succumbs to the arrival of the Center-Right and Far Right Parties (led by ex-prime minister Francois Fillon, and far right leader Marine Le Pen), and now, just like conservative David Cameron in the UK, Italian Prime Minister (and fan of Tony Blair and the Third Way) Matteo Renzi plays his last card at a complicated populists' favorite game, a referendum, and almost suicidal maneuver, just like in Cameron´s case, in order to get a better hold of Italy´s constitutional complexity, with the populist “all is allowed” Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement waiting to take advantage in case Renzi is defeated in the event. 

The world's turn to the right seems to be a moderate reaction to the rise of the even dangerous far right movements all over the globe apparently in order looking to seize the masses, fueled by a corrupt political system, societies are willing to abolish, and populist opportunists trying to take advantage of social irritation, in a way more traditional right wing is reacting in order to serve as a counterweight to more extreme proposals from the right, and perhaps taking cue from a transformation Scandinavia went through in order to rescue it's decaying socialdemicratic systems and to keep populists away, Scandinavian countries, once famous for their welfare systems, moved from social democracies on the left wing specter towards center right governments in order to keep the system, allow a better function of its free market vision and create a more dynamic government in order to face their aging population, that might be a clue to countries like Germany (already under the menace of the AfD), France (with the National Front), Spain, Portugal, Italy (with Grillo and Berlusconi), Austria (with Norbert Hoffer and his Freedom Party of Austria) and Greece (whose radical left could end up isolated in this right wing global turn) of where the answer might be in order to keep populist nationalist away from taking over power, and give a second life to the right wings governments in Poland and Hungary in order to move towards the center, and less to the extremes in order to prevent extremist parties to take over.

In México, population is still confused, considering MoReNa (National regeneration Movement) as a left wing party, its ultra conservative nature might put them closer to the far right wing consolidating in Europe (along with the PRI, México ultra conservative party), so it’s up to the PAN (National Action Party) a center right wing party, to develop a way to contain MoReNa populist advance in the presidential race towards 2018, already a coalition between the PAN and the center-left PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party) is in the work, in order to defeat the corrupt PRI and stop the populist MoReNa to seize power, in the meantime, get ready for changes.