'Enough is enough!' The new leitmotif of French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his comrades in the brand new Parti de gauche français (French left party) reflects the sentiment amongst the extreme left across Europe. It's no longer a secret – socialists are suffering from a massive, paralysing identity crisis. And there's worse! They are chummying up to the enemy. The modern left has to make compromises and accept a certain amount of flirtation with the right or centre-right, in order to gain power. It is not surprising then that certain more militant socialists no longer feel at home.
The internal quarrels infuriate those with a more extreme political stance, who are responding to the crisis by their own means, creating their own political groupings. Weakened by the fall of communism and the conversion to capitalism in former soviet bloc countries, parties of the extreme left have stayed in the shadows. But recently the winds have changed: with the 'no' to the constitutional treaty from the from the French and Dutch, the 'no' from the Irish to the Lisbon treaty and now the financial crisis, the far left is trying to take advantage of this situation and is taking on the revolt. With the current need for society to take action and disillusionment with the capitalist model mean this really is the moment for the left to take centre stage politically.
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