Frustration is currently sweeping Europe and for good reason: persistent unemployment, inequality, weak growth and a pervasive sense of powerlessness, to name a few. Unfortunately, the main political beneficiary is likely to be the Eurosceptic right, and even the extreme right. The left is failing to capitalise on the wave of popular frustration, mostly because it has no progressive Eurosceptic agenda to offer.
That is not to say that the left has no radical solutions for the ills afflicting Europe. It rejects the fiscal austerity that is devastating both economic activity and the welfare state; it advocates policies to reduce unemployment, particularly among the young; it favours redistributing income and wealth to confront inequality; it proposes controls over the financial system, one of the main culprits of the current malaise; it backs an investment drive to boost productive capacity and to rebalance the European economy.
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